The next two months will see one familiar face departing State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl’s team, another familiar face returning to run the state attorney’s Vero Beach office, a fresh crop of young prosecutors, and long-overdue raises for those who bring criminals to justice. Assistant State Attorney Bill Long, who ran Bakkedahl’s Vero office through Covid pandemic court shutdowns and the massive felony case backlog that followed, is on his way to becoming a federal prosecutor. Long is the second lawyer from the Nineteenth Circuit to make the move to the Department of Justice recently, the other being Justin Miller. Assistant State Attorney David Dodd, who moved up the ranks from misdemeanors to serious and complex felony cases in Vero, will be returning to manage the Vero office, at least temporarily. Dodd served in the Major Crimes Division headquartered in Fort Pierce before taking over Bakkedahl’s St. Lucie County office in 2021. Bakkedahl’s deputy, Chief Assistant State Attorney Steve Gosnell, will be taking over Dodd’s job in St. Lucie County. “We’ve got a great team, and we’ll be able to cover everything,” Dodd said. St. Lucie County handles about two and a half times as many felony cases as Indian River County – 2,866 new cases last year compared to 1,260. Indian River has one felony division to St. Lucie’s three felony divisions. “David is awesome. He’s been running our office in St. Lucie and if you can make it in St. Lucie, it’s like that Sinatra song – ‘if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,’” Bakkedahl said. “He lives up in Vero ... and I think he’ll do phenomenal up there. My only fear is he won’t want to come back to St. Lucie when I need him.” On top of that, Bakkedahl said he’s hired a pack of freshly minted lawyers for Dodd to train in Vero, starting in August. “That’s the fun stuff, too. You know, in law school they teach you how to think like a lawyer, but they don’t teach you how to be one,” Dodd said. “We start everybody in misdemeanor. They work through misdemeanor and get their sea legs under them. From there, they move on to felony when there are openings.” Later on, after getting significant felony case experience, prosecutors begin to specialize in a specific type of case such economic crimes, capital crimes or sex crimes. But the newbies are far from that, learning the basics of courtroom procedure and how to deal with law enforcement officers, victims of crime, and defense attorneys – plus navigating all the paperwork. When those new attorneys show up on the job, they’ll be earning a new starting salary of $87,000, thanks to the state’s 2026-27 budget. “That’s more than three times what I made when I started,” said Bakkedahl, who became a prosecutor in 1991. “We’re starting to get competitive when you figure in the state benefit package. That will help a lot.” Also in the budget – unless Gov. DeSantis vetoes the measure – is an across-the-board $10,000 salary increase for already serving prosecutors. Bakkedahl credits the Florida Legislature for recognizing the stress and heavy caseloads prosecutors take on and making the pay a little better. “If somebody wants to go into the private sector, I can’t compete with that, but we are doing a hell of a job, I think, at making it more attractive to new kids out of law school who have an interest in public safety and public service.” Bakkedahl seemed optimistic, He said his attorneys have worked hard to dig out from under the backlog of felony cases that built up during the pandemic, when court activity was restricted. “We’ve got the cases way down; we even got below 1,000 felony cases for the first time since 2022,” Bakkedahl said of the Vero office, which is the northernmost office of the 19th Circuit. The district includes Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River counties. Bakkedahl said the turnover in attorneys is baked into the job, noting that he has seen countless talented lawyers come and go over the past three decades, getting valuable training in the State Attorney’s Office before going into private practice or more lucrative government jobs. “People come and people go. I wish everybody would make a career of it, but people do what they perceive to be the best for them,” he said.