DA: Felony cases up 52% in first week of Memphis Safe Task Force
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy fired back at his critics during an appearance on Action News 5’s “A Better Memphis” Thursday.
He also provided an update on the staggering number of cases hitting the court system as the Memphis Safe Task Force wraps up Day 11 of the mission.
His comments come on the eve of the official deployment of the Tennessee National Guard in the Bluff City, with the DA issuing a warning about overcrowded courts and jails.
For the past few weeks, federal GOP leaders have accused DA Mulroy of being soft on crime. President Trump labeled him a “Soros-funded district attorney,” while U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called him a “woke Soros DA.” Billionaire financier George Soros is a key donor to Democratic causes.
“This is the same politics as usual stuff we’ve been hearing for a while,” Mulroy told Action News 5, “I think apparently they’ve been getting their information from Senator Taylor, who’s 0 for 5 in meritless ethics complaints against me.”
DA Mulroy says he’s now focused on the surge of court cases stemming from the federal surge in Memphis. 562 arrests have been made so far, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, with 144 illegal weapons seized.
The impact on the Shelby County DA’s Office, according to Mulroy, has been “significant.” He said his staff has 52% more felony cases and 30% more misdemeanor cases to handle this week versus the week before the Memphis Safe Task Force started working.
“Which is one of the reasons why I think we should be seriously exploring the idea of a night court among many other things,” said Mulroy.
The DA also worries about overcrowding at the county jail inside 201 Poplar. The capacity is 2,800. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says the current population is 2,855.
SCSO says those arrested on federal charges will be held in separate federal facilities across the region.
“Sending these arrestees to the far-flung corners of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas isn’t really a good solution because they need to have access to their defense counsel and to their families,” said Mulroy.
The DA’s office meets weekly with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine which local cases involving individuals accused of the worst-of-the-worst crimes will be moved to the federal docket.
“That was the case even before the federal task force, but it’s particularly important that we’re doing it now,” Mulroy said.
Mulroy also renewed his request for a crime lab and said he recently toured the lab in Nashville to come up with ideas on how they can ramp up their forensic capability.
“It doesn’t need to be a full-service, freestanding building, but we can, and I think law enforcement would agree, we can definitely use a beefed-up ability for those three areas: rapid DNA, ballistics, and cell phone stuff.”
The DA says he’s spoken to the newly-appointed U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Mike Dunavant.
Nominated by President Trump in July, Congress just confirmed him on Tuesday, October 7. The Republican lawyer returns to the office he once held from 2017 to 2021.
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