Federal prosecutions fall first time in 7 years.

• Date: 24 April 2002

Byline: David Ziemer

For the first time in seven years, the number of criminal defendants hauled into federal court fell last year, but only slightly. According to data released in the 2001 Annual Report of Leonidas Ralph Mecham, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the United States filed criminal actions against 83,252 defendants in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2001, down 0.8 percent from the 83,963 in 2000.

Locally, however, prosecutions increased. Filings rose in the Eastern District of Wisconsin 2.6 percent, from 350 defendants charged in 2000 to 359 last year. In the Western District, the number of defendants charged rose a whopping 18.1 percent, from 149 to 176.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1999, only 130 were charged in the Western District, for a 37.7 percent increase in just the last two years.

U.S. Attorney Grant C. Johnson attributed the increase to a combination of factors, but specifically noted that the district...