In April, Spokane police arrested a man for grabbing a woman by the neck and pushing her to the ground. A neighbor had called 911 worried that the yelling next door was a domestic violence situation, and the woman told an officer through tears that she was sick of her boyfriend putting his hands on her, according to the police report.
The next day, Spokane County prosecutors sent an email to police. There was probable cause that the man had committed a felony-level assault, since he had prior domestic violence convictions for assaulting and strangling other women he was dating. But the prosecutor鈥檚 office decided to decline the case because the victim didn鈥檛 want to pursue charges.
It used to be rare that prosecutors declined to bring such charges, said Sgt. Dave Adams, who has worked at the Spokane Police Department for over three decades and has led its domestic violence unit since August 2024. But starting last summer, Adams said that similar emails started trickling into his inbox, until October, when it was like a spigot had opened. The Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office went from declining one or two felony domestic violence cases referred by law enforcement per month to declining over a dozen, peaking in March at 25 declined cases, according to the prosecutor鈥檚 office鈥檚 data. People who were arrested for crimes like strangulation, assault and no-contact order violations were being released within days, with no new criminal charges on their record.
鈥淚t was a little bit of a shocker,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淪uddenly my inbox starts getting filled up, and I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hat have I missed here?鈥欌��
Spokane County has one of the highest reported rates of domestic violence in the state. But under Prosecuting Attorney Preston McCollam 鈥� up for election this year after being appointed to the position in July 2025 鈥� the county has seen a surge in domestic violence cases being declined, the office鈥檚 data shows. While McCollam, Spokane police and survivor advocates point to differing reasons for the case refusals, they agree that the county鈥檚 criminal justice system is at capacity 鈥� and that consequently, some cases must take priority over others.
Adams and advocates at Spokane鈥檚 YWCA attribute the increased refusals to prosecute to a that slashed the number of cases that public defense attorneys are allowed to take each year. The order, drawing on recommendations from the Washington State Bar Association鈥檚 review of a , aimed to lighten the of public defenders, who represent low-income people charged with crimes 鈥� a legal service that each state is constitutionally obligated to provide.
Instead of providing relief, some prosecutors and law enforcement officers say that the new mandatory caseload limits 鈥� which jurisdictions had to start implementing in January 鈥� are tipping Washington鈥檚 strained criminal justice system to a breaking point. As public defenders take fewer cases each year in accordance with the court rules, prosecutors say they are having to be even more selective with the charges that they file or else they鈥檇 risk a judge tossing the case out later due to a lack of representation. Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Brusic said his office is declining more property crime and non-domestic violence assault cases because there aren鈥檛 enough prosecutors or public defenders to take them all.
鈥淪ince we鈥檝e had the attorney shortage, we鈥檝e had to be more selective. It鈥檚 angered police chiefs, and it鈥檚 angered the community to some degree, because we have a high crime rate,鈥� Brusic said.
Although McCollam said that he鈥檚 worried about the state鈥檚 public defense crisis, he disagrees that it鈥檚 impacting his office鈥檚 charging decisions, especially when it comes to domestic violence cases. Those decisions are based on the strength of the case, admissible evidence and whether they believe they can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
It also depends on the availability of prosecutors 鈥� the Spokane County office is down 20% of its staff at any given time, operating with around 40 criminal lawyers when they should have over 50, McCollam said. Following his appointment last year, he sent a clear message to law enforcement: While the office remained committed to prosecuting violent and chronic offenders, they鈥檙e facing 鈥渟ignificant challenges鈥� in prosecuting crime due to staffing and changing court rules.
The in July 2025 that accelerated the timeline for prosecutors to make charging decisions in state superior courts, McCollam pointed out. and had submitted public comments imploring the Supreme Court justices to reject this change, arguing that the 鈥渆xtremely overwhelmed鈥� criminal justice system was already straining to assign attorneys in the current timeline, and that prosecutors would have significantly less time to notify and confer with victims about charges. The changes were adopted anyway.
鈥淭he system is still struggling under the burden of these rule changes,鈥� McCollam said.
As a result, there are some crimes that the prosecutor鈥檚 office has stopped prioritizing. Over a quarter of Spokane County鈥檚 declined felony domestic violence cases from January 2025 through March 2026 were for 鈥渋nvited鈥� violations of no-contact orders, according to the office鈥檚 records 鈥� meaning that the survivor allowed their alleged abuser to contact them despite it being a crime under the court order. The prosecutor鈥檚 office can鈥檛 prioritize those cases due to the 鈥渟heer number of violent crimes and nonconsensual contact cases,鈥� according to McCollam.
Before last year鈥檚 Supreme Court orders, the prosecutor鈥檚 office used to take those cases, Adams said. There are many reasons why domestic violence survivors might allow their abusers to contact them, said Adams, like fear of telling their abuser 鈥渘o鈥� or because they鈥檙e trying to navigate shared custody of their kids.
Now, Adams doesn鈥檛 assign detectives to those cases.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 waste taxpayer dollars investigating stuff that won鈥檛 be prosecuted,鈥� he said.
Victim cooperation
On a cool, clear night in April, a woman called the Spokane Police Department afraid she was going to die. She reported that her boyfriend had squeezed his hands around her neck, yelling that he would kill her as she gasped for him to let go, according to the police report.
When police arrived, an officer noted a fresh cut on the woman鈥檚 lip and redness on her cheek where she said her boyfriend had hit her. Her neck was red and her eye was bloodshot. She was shaking.
They arrested the man for second-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The Spokane County Superior Court issued an order barring him from contacting the woman or coming within 1,000 feet of her home, and the police department assigned a detective to dig further into the case.
But the detective never got the chance. Within days of the arrest, the Spokane County prosecutor鈥檚 office declined to file charges against the man. He was released from jail, and the no-contact order was dropped.
The prosecutor鈥檚 office sent an email to Spokane police explaining why they declined the case: When the office reached out to the woman, she told them that nothing bad had happened and she was fine. Without her cooperation or more independent evidence supporting the allegations, prosecutors decided not to move forward with the case.
鈥淰ictim noncooperation鈥� is a common challenge in domestic violence cases, said Sally Winn, YWCA Spokane鈥檚 director of legal services. Many victims call 911 because they need immediate protection, but after the emergency is over, they don鈥檛 agree to be involved in the criminal investigation. That decision is often for safety reasons, Winn said.
鈥淢aybe he鈥檚 threatening her. Maybe he鈥檚 withholding child support if she goes forward,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what kind of influence the abuser is having over the victim in trying to prevent her from going forward. That is not an indicator of whether or not the case is valid.鈥�
Before the June 2025 state Supreme Court order, the prosecutor鈥檚 office would often still file charges in these instances based on evidence like medical records, photos, videos, witness testimony and text messages, according to Winn and Adams. Yet as fall turned to winter then spring, Spokane police received more and more emails from the prosecutor鈥檚 office declining cases because the victim wasn鈥檛 cooperating.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 been the biggest change for us in law enforcement, is to see those cases get declined,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淭he nature of domestic violence being what it is, the chances that a survivor is going to want to cooperate are essentially zero.鈥�
In March, Spokane police interviewed a woman whose face was streaked with blood after an alleged assault, according to police records. The woman described how her boyfriend pushed her to the ground and squeezed her neck with his thighs. The officer saw shattered glass throughout the apartment and a broken TV that the woman said her boyfriend smashed with a granite block.
The prosecutor鈥檚 office declined the case days later, after the woman told a victim advocate that she had 鈥渘o safety concerns鈥� and didn鈥檛 want to press charges.
In another case later that month, a woman told a Spokane County Sheriff鈥檚 Office deputy that her intoxicated husband had slammed her face into a car window and screamed that he would kill her. The deputy photographed the woman鈥檚 swollen cheek and scratches on her face. Her husband, who had a previous conviction for assaulting her, was arrested and booked into jail. Again, the prosecutor鈥檚 office dropped the case within days after the woman told a victim advocate that she didn鈥檛 have safety concerns.
Although cases become much more difficult to prove without the survivor鈥檚 testimony, filing charges still has benefits for survivors, Winn said. It activates protection mechanisms like no-contact orders and requirements for alleged abusers to relinquish their guns. It also allows survivors more time to recover from the incident, speak with advocates and make safety plans 鈥� supports that could eventually give them the capacity to engage with prosecutors later in the process.
In Yakima County, which also faces high rates of domestic violence, Prosecuting Attorney Brusic said that his office doesn鈥檛 need victim cooperation to charge domestic violence cases, although they always prefer to have it. 鈥淭here are evidentiary ways we can get around it,鈥� Brusic said, like relying on hearsay exceptions and eyewitness accounts, 鈥渂ut it does have an impact on our decisions at times.鈥�
But McCollam said that he 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� needs cooperation from the victim in order to present domestic violence cases in court. Filing those cases without it does a disservice both to the victim and the community, he said.
鈥淚f we know at the onset that we can鈥檛 prove it, we鈥檙e kind of clogging the court system even more,鈥� McCollam said.
Supply and demand
In September 2024, Washington State Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Executive Director Russell Brown stood in front of the state鈥檚 Supreme Court justices and, on behalf of Washington鈥檚 39 elected prosecutors, asked them to reject the proposal to slash public defender caseloads.
鈥淲e are seeing currently in many communities already under the current labor shortages, there are not enough public defenders, and frankly, not enough prosecutors to manage the current criminal caseload,鈥� Brown said during the .
The proposed court rules would only aggravate this complex problem, he argued. 鈥淵ou would see substantial numbers of serious criminal cases that would be unable to be filed.鈥�
Several prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, city mayors and judges submitted comments echoing Brown鈥檚 concerns that lowering public defenders鈥� caseloads would only worsen counties鈥� existing attorney shortages.
But in June 2025, the Washington State Supreme Court found that the state鈥檚 required immediate action. Low-income people who had been charged with crimes were for an attorney, while overburdened public defenders were drowning under excessive caseloads.
The justices issued an order lowering the maximum cases that public defenders can take on from 150 felony cases per year to 47 鈥� effectively tripling the number of defense attorneys that Washington needs to manage the same volume of cases. Jurisdictions to comply, using a phased approach that requires them to get incrementally closer to the new standard each year.
In many jurisdictions, however, the money and labor pool needed to implement the required changes simply don鈥檛 exist. Unlike most states, Washington contributes little funding to its public defense system, leaving local governments to pay for of the costs 鈥� a burden that many smaller and rural counties don鈥檛 have the resources for.
Spokane County is already facing implementation challenges. In May, the directors of two public defense offices for setting caseload limits that they argue exceed the limits allowed by the state Supreme Court. Some public defenders have had to stop taking assignments and work hundreds of unpaid hours in an effort to give their clients quality representation, according to the lawsuit.
Prosecutors are not optimistic that the problem will be solved anytime soon. Although the state Legislature more than doubled its funding for local public defense services in its budget for 2026 and 2027, counties say the funding of what鈥檚 needed. A proposal to direct 7% of Washington鈥檚 revenue toward public defense was before the bill passed in March.
鈥淭o say we need some more defense attorneys, I think, is reasonable. But to say we need three times as many defense attorneys, I don鈥檛 see that as reasonable or workable,鈥� said Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik. 鈥淎lready, this is causing real damage to the justice system. The damage will become very, very serious in another two, three, four years.鈥�
Some counties鈥� superior courts are already . In 2024, Benton County released five people from jail who were charged because there were no defense attorneys to represent them. A Clark County judge in February for the same reason. In Yakima County, the lack of defense attorneys grew so dire that the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington over it in 2024.
The Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office has not begun selecting out domestic violence cases, which are still being filed at the same rate as previous years, according to the office鈥檚 data. But Prosecuting Attorney Brusic and Yakima Police Department officers worry that refusals to prosecute domestic violence cases will become a larger issue as the public defender caseload limit phases in over the next decade.
鈥淎ll of those laws designed to keep victims of domestic violence safe are being countered by the inability to prosecute people that should be prosecuted for domestic violence,鈥� said Yakima Police Department Capt. Chad Janis. 鈥淭he question is, how many times is it acceptable to assault your wife before we prosecute you? Because that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e going to go.鈥�
In Spokane County, McCollam emphasized that prosecutors still decline relatively few cases. From June 2024 to April 2026, the prosecutor鈥檚 office filed 5,866 cases and declined 766, a decline rate of about 13%. The King County Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office, in contrast, declined to file over 40% of cases referred by law enforcement in Superior Court during that same timeframe, according to the .
鈥淲e should never be in a situation, I don鈥檛 believe, where we鈥檙e filing a case or we鈥檙e not filing a case because we鈥檙e worried about whether or not they have an attorney,鈥� McCollam said.
But in practice, prosecutors like McCollam know that there are only so many cases that will make it through the state鈥檚 underfunded criminal justice system 鈥� and if they don鈥檛 triage those cases on the front end, then a judge could end up dismissing them later in the process due to a lack of attorneys, as happened in Benton and Clark counties.
McCollam looks at Oregon as a cautionary tale. In February, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that had to be dismissed due to a shortage of public defenders.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 really concerned is coming to Washington if we can鈥檛 get this thing figured out,鈥� McCollam said. 鈥淪o we need to be aware of it, and we need to be prioritizing resources.鈥�
The prosecutor鈥檚 office doesn鈥檛 leave domestic violence survivors out in the cold, added Spokane County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hannah Stearns. Attorneys refer them to the YWCA and other organizations to help with things like custody issues, housing and transportation.
But the YWCA鈥檚 capacity is . Their shelter is full, their domestic violence helpline is constantly ringing, and the number of people getting legal support nearly doubled since last year, according to a May statement from the organization. Adding to the strain, federal funding for crime victims has plummeted in recent years, causing Washington domestic violence nonprofits to just to continue operating.
鈥淲e can try and protect the client as best we can, but there鈥檚 nothing in place to change the trajectory of the abuser,鈥� Winn said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of what we need the criminal justice system to do, so it doesn鈥檛 happen to the same survivor again or doesn鈥檛 happen to another survivor.鈥�
In January, when a mom of three didn鈥檛 want to engage with Spokane County prosecutors, the prosecutor鈥檚 office emailed law enforcement that 鈥渨ith great regret鈥� they had to decline the felony domestic violence referral. The victim was 鈥�100%+ uncooperative,鈥� the email explained, and they didn鈥檛 have other witnesses who could testify. But the prosecutor鈥檚 office concluded with a warning: 鈥淲e鈥檒l see this family again.鈥�
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