Opinion ID: 1594768
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: whether the trial court had the authority to remove all members of the state's attorney's office.

Text: Part of the trial court's remedy for Groff's alleged misconduct was the disqualification of the entire staff of the Pennington County State's Attorney's Office. The trial court's decision was premised upon the fact that Groff was ultimately responsible for deciding to attempt to remove Judge Tice. Although this issue has been rendered moot by our holding earlier herein, we must observe that we find absolutely no authority to support the trial court's decision. We conclude that the trial court exceeded its authority in disqualifying the entire state's attorney's office from these cases. There are other ways to discipline an errant state's attorney. See State v. Catch The Bear, 352 N.W.2d 637 (S.D. 1984).