DA: Crimes against elderly on the rise

Newly sworn-in District Attorney Bo Duhé sees crimes against the elderly as a growing challenge for his office as the baby-boomer population ages, while he is also placing an emphasis on programs to help young people, he said Monday.
Duhé, 52, took office Jan. 12 as district attorney for Louisiana’s 16th Judicial District Court. Duhé has served in the district attorney’s office 21 years, and he learned a tremendous amount from former district attorneys Bernie Boudreaux and Phil Haney, he said.
About five years ago, former District Attorney Phil Haney named Duhé assistant district attorney, Duhé said.
One type of crime that Duhé believes will soon become more prevalent, is crime against the elderly, he said. “We have the baby boomer population, which is obviously expanding into their elderly years, and as a result, you have a larger population of potential victims that are exploited either financially or physically by caregivers, family members, what have you,” Duhé said.
The growth of crimes against the elderly reminds Duhé of the early 1990s when domestic violence issues started coming to light, he said. Speaking about crimes against elderly people, Duhé said, “I think, unfortunately, that’s going to be an area that is going to deserve a lot of attention, which I’m hoping and aiming to prepare for that.”
As district attorney, Haney began an early intervention program for youth in the area, Duhé said. “It’s one of the largest juvenile programs of any DA’s office in the state of Louisiana,” Duhé said. The goal of that program is to identify first, second and third graders that are having problems, not necessarily criminal, but issues that include coming to school disheveled, tired, hungry or are not getting the support at home that they should, he said.
“The school system tries to resolve the problem with their resources, but if they can’t get a resolution, they’ll come to the district attorney’s office, who has the power to bring in parents and find out what’s going on,” Duhé said. “Oftentimes, you’ll find a single-parent household where the mother may be overwhelmed and may have relied on substance abuse, and in such, has left the children with a very unstable household and without the basic needs they need to be successful in school,” Duhé said.
The district attorney’s office tries to use its resources with counseling and programs to get young people back on track, he said.
“There’s a lot of times where we have to make tough decisions, and we have to be very aggressive on violent offenders and repeat offenders, sex offenders, and we don’t hesitate to do that,” Duhé said. “On the other hand, we also realize that you can’t paint a broad brush on every offender.”
Many times, when dealing with youthful, non-violent offenders, people have made poor decisions, and if the opportunity warrants it the district attorney’s office will try to help people get back on track, he said.
“Instead of sticking them in prison where they’re going to be a draw on the tax dollars … we’d like to do what we can to take advantage of options that are out there to turn them into productive, taxpaying citizens. And I think you’ve seen that over the years,” Duhé said.
Drug courts began in the 16th Judicial District Court before they were commonplace, Duhé said. “We welcomed it as an alternative and a way to get treatment to addicts. We were finding that ... the vast majority of your crimes had some component of illegal narcotics or alcohol involved that precipitated the activity. And the theory always was that if you cure the addict, you cure the criminal,” Duhé said. The recidivism rates have proven that to be true, he said.
“We have a great group of employees in St. Mary Parish in the Franklin and Morgan City offices, a bunch of long-term people who have made their careers in that office,” Duhé said.
Regarding the office’s budget, Duhé said many state agencies are having budget problems. “I don’t think district attorney’s offices across the state are going to be in any different position. I just think we have to keep working to work smarter with what we have and find ways to fill those financial holes,” Duhé said.
As an example of what can be done to help the budget, Duhé referenced the legislature’s action years ago to put a mechanism in place to have the district attorney’s office prosecute people who issue worthless checks, he said. “There was a fee mechanism built into that to help offset the cost to the DA’s office to staff and run those kind of programs,” Duhé said.
However, worthless checks are not as common now due to many people using credit cards, he said. “That as a source of revenue for offices has fallen off,” Duhé said. District attorney’s offices in Louisiana, with the exception of two offices in the state, are not funded by dedicated property taxes or dedicated sales taxes, he said.
“So you have a fluctuating roller-coaster of income. A lot of your money is generated from the offenders,” Duhé said. “You’ve just got to be able to adapt to the situation and work smarter and harder and be open to ideas to try to make those peaks and valleys as less pronounced as you can.”