PIERRE, S.D.(KCCR)- The Hughes County Commission approved a contract to help the States Attorney’s office get caught up on a back log of cases.  States Attorney Jessica LaMie says the contract is for work prosecuting misdemeanor and magistrate court cases.

The contract is for four-thousand dollars a month and will end once LaMie hires a new Deputy States Attorney.  It’s being paid for with the money that would be going to a Deputy States Attorney.  LaMie says the process has revealed what she feels is the need to add a third prosecutor,

Commission Chair Randy Vance is open to the idea but needs numbers from LaMie to move forward with a third prosecutor.

Vance says Hughes County has spent 60-thousand dollars in court-appointed attorneys’ fees in October alone and over a million dollars for the year so far.