Post by Corey Haller

Imagine summoning the courage to face your abuser in court, only to be told to wait. Then being told to wait again—and again—for nearly three years. In my latest piece for the Mille Lacs Messenger, I highlight a devastating reality in Mille Lacs County: our broken court calendaring system is collapsing cases and denying justice. Recently, my office had to dismiss multiple felony charges, including first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct against a child. This wasn't due to a lack of evidence, prosecutorial errors, or defense tactics. It was because the trial date was pushed back five times; the case languished for over 900 days solely due to scheduling conflicts with other cases. The victim cooperated fully and prepared for trial multiple times. But after nearly three years of resets, she understandably lost confidence in a process that seemed to have no time for her. Without her testimony, we had no choice but to dismiss the charges. It was the most difficult dismissal I have ever written. This was not the fault of our prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, or certainly the victims. It is the failure of a bloated, outdated scheduling model created in 2021 to manage the post-pandemic backlog. The emergency is over, but the system has now become a major source of delay itself. This is the human cost of delayed justice. When cases languish for years: Victims suffer a form of re-victimization and lose faith in the process. Defendants sit under a cloud of accusation for years without resolution. Justice becomes unpredictable, inconsistent, and often impossible. We urgently need to modernize our court calendar. Justice should be based on the evidence and the law—not the sheer exhaustion of those who are forced to endure years of uncertainty. The system might label some cases as "high" or "low" priority, but for the people involved, every case is high priority. https://lnkd.in/gt5niHir #CriminalJustice #JusticeReform #MilleLacsCounty #LegalReform #VictimsRights #Prosecution #LawAndLocalGov #Minnesota