By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

County attorney Joel Ensey said his first five months in office have gone well.

“I’ve enjoyed doing it and enjoyed working with law enforcement,” Ensey said.

Before coming to Marion to fill the county attorney position vacated when former county attorney Courtney Boehm was appointed a judge, Ensey worked as a public defender in
Salina for two years.

Prior to that, he spent four years as a prosecutor and worked in a bank for a time.

While prosecution and defense work are different, they are different sides of the same coin, Ensey said. Prosecution suits him.

“It’s about what’s best for the community,” he said. “Trying to make people whole is what it’s about.”

Marion County’s crime rate is about what Ensey expected when he came here, he said. The most frequent crimes are property crimes such as thefts from retailers.

He’s pleased to have seen a drug and alcohol evaluation and treatment center open in Marion, though the county doesn’t have inpatient treatment.

He’s also glad the county has access to a Prairie View office in Hillsboro.

It’s the criminal justice system that deals with those who don’t have access to those services, Ensey said.

Ensey said he focuses on taking cases to trial when the case merits a trial, and resolving those that don’t in other ways.

“If we took everything to trial, I don’t know how many prosecutors we’d need, or extra courtrooms,” Ensey said. “I don’t think the public wants us to take everything to trial because they’d constantly be on jury duty.”