BATON ROUGE — East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore joined other DAs from across Louisiana at the State Capitol on Wednesday to request more assistant district attorney positions.

Moore says his office has been significantly understaffed for decades, saying they are in desperate need of ADAs. 

"Public safety is being compromised at this point in Baton Rouge because of the lack of Assistant DA's," he said at the capitol.

Moore said he and other DAs came up with a formula to determine how many ADAs are needed per parish. He said that, by that formula, East Baton Rouge Parish needs a total of 78 ADA positions, 23 fewer than he currently has. However, due to his office's backlog, he is asking for 25 ADAs. That's 10 more than he asked for last May, when a property tax failed that would have given more funding to the DA's office. 

"Had that tax pass, we wouldn't be talking about any of this cause I would've hired the lawyers already and had the additional money to pay for their cost," Moore explained. 

In a presentation he gave at the Capitol, Moore said his office is severely underfunded, especially when compared to other DA offices that serve smaller populations, like Orleans and Jefferson Parishes.

"For years, the EBRDA's Office has operated under austerity while its peers received millions more (despite serving smaller populations)," Moore's presentation read.

Earlier this year, the city-parish cut the DA's budget 11%.

"When I hire a $50,000 lawyer, it actually cost me $80,000. So, I have to find the additional $30,000 from somewhere else, that somewhere is normally the city-parish," Moore said. 

If Moore receives warrants for his requested ADA positions, he will next have to push the legislature to find the funding for them. 

"The only way a true justice system works is to be swift, but it also has to be fair, and it has to be certain, and you have to have all three of those things or it doesn't work. Surely right now we are very late," Moore said. 

Moore says he still plan to file a lawsuit against the city-parish for funding, that suit may be filed next week. 

"I'm still in the position that I'm in and I just can't wait any longer," he said. 

Now, that the commission has approved 164 additional ADA positions statewide, a bill will be amended to reflect the change, and it will start it's process through the legislature.

Also at the Capitol on Wednesday, Moore testified in support of House Bill 59, which would provide more funding for the EBR public defender's office.