At risk of being lost in the fine print of the agenda notes for the Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting of June 6 was the news that District Attorney Ricky Smith’s office lost grant funding for its third assistant district attorney position.

Since August 2009, the slot had been held by Lane Campbell, son of a former Warren County district attorney, Frank Campbell.

Lane Campbell moved up to one of the two state-funded ADA positions with the departure in April of Dewey Arthur.

By statute, the state can pay for only two assistants, meaning that without the grant, the DA’s office — which handles about 800 felony cases a year — reverts to just three prosecutors.

Smith has asked the supervisors for about $90,000 annually in county funds to keep a third ADA on staff, and we believe supervisors would be wise to find the money.

“In a prosecutor’s office, everything hinges on your ability to try cases,” Smith said. The third prosecutor “makes a world of difference in the number of cases you can handle and the amount of revenue you can generate,” he said.

The threat of taking a defendant to trial and being able to get a conviction often influences a defendant to accept a plea deal that includes prison time versus holding out for a more lenient sentence. When advising their clients, defense attorneys are aware that a strong staff in the DA’s office correlates to the building of a strong case.

In 2008, Smith’s first year in office, when he had a staff of two ADAs, the office completed 659 cases and assessed $235,245 in fines.

In 2010, with a three-ADA staff, the office completed 788 cases and assessed $476,170 in fines.

The difference, nearly $241,000, is an average of almost $24,000 a month in assessed fines.

Yes, it takes time for defendants to move through the system and begin paying their fines, but the third ADA still pays for the position many times over.

In addition, the ability to expedite cases either through trials or plea agreements helps reduce the inmate population at the Warren County Jail, a primary concern of grand juries for more than 10 years. It also cuts inmate meal and supplies expenses as well as medical bills the county could face.

It all adds up.

Supervisors must find the money to keep a third assistant district attorney on staff and not let the financial and legal gains made over the last couple of years be lost like so much fine print.