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Show County justice no t fully erved The fact that Ninth Circuit Court Judge Christian Ronnow told Iron County Attorney James L. Shumate last week that he, as a prosecuting attorney, had probably not done his job adequately was a hint that perhaps the residents of Iron County are not seeing justice done by the elected attorney. The fact that members of the Cedar City Police Department have been saying for some time now that Shumate has been dismissing or plea bargaining away many important cases seems to further illustrate that hint. It now is time, we feel, that the citizens of the county and, especially, the Iron County Commission demand more from the person they elected to prosecute cases in the county. L " The preliminary hearing last week dealing with an alleged rape is a bit of a moot question at this point, and it is certainly not proper for us to discuss certain points of a case still in litigation. However, parties on every side of the issue were unhappy with the way the entire case was i handled. ; V However, Shumate's past history in court provides some interesting notes and figures that we can discuss. , - 1 For instance during law and motion days in Fifth District Court last month, seven individuals were arraigned before Judge J. Harlan Burns. ' Shumate had reached plea bargaining agreements with five of them. In February only three arraignments took place during the law and motion days. All three were plea bargained. In January two out of four arraigned reached plea bargaining agreements. , ; Of course, these numbers are not comprehensive. Many other, arraignments t take place at different times and in different courts in . the county. However," our "count stioWlt) TflW ftymrm&TfleSF bargained. v. ; ' Of course some plea bargaining is done in the interest of justice. Sometimes, say our sources, justice isn't done. Shumate's abilities as an attorney are not the question at this point, only the way he is handling the cases involving the State. Certainly, since he is the man responsible for justice being done in the county, he should become more accountable to the citizenry, the county commission and the law enforcement officials.. , , . . , |