After 26 years with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, including 15 as top prosecutor, District Attorney Steven Leriche plans to resign Feb. 2 to take a job with the Oregon Department of Justice.

The resignation follows several years in which the office has struggled to recruit and retain prosecutors amid high numbers of serious crimes.

Gov. Tina Kotek’s office announced the resignation Tuesday afternoon in a press release. Kotek plans to fill the vacancy by appointment in accordance with state law. Her office is now accepting applications, which are due Feb. 18.

Leriche, 59, will begin a new job as a prosecutor with the Oregon Department of Justice Feb. 3, which will allow him to remain in the role of Jefferson County District Attorney for as long as it takes to find a replacement. He’ll eventually transition to Salem.

The new opportunity to spend more time prosecuting cases all over the state, and to be closer to his father in Salem, were the biggest reasons Leriche decided to step down, he told The Bulletin Wednesday morning.

Leriche went to high school in Portland, attended Gonzaga University and earned his law degree from the University of Oregon. He then served seven years as an officer in the U.S. Army before joining the district attorney’s office in 1998. Eleven years later, he was elected District Attorney. His resignation comes amid his fifth term after winning election — again — in 2024.

“It’s been a good long run,” he said.

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Leriche said part of the reason he took the new job was to relieve himself of the “taxing” administrative duties shouldered by the district attorney, including recruiting and retaining deputy prosecutors, which has become harder and harder over the years, he said.

“I won’t have that headache anymore, and I won’t have to worry about budgets and worry about personnel issues and policy issues,” he said.

“I can really just focus on prosecuting for the remainder of the year,” he added.

Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels, who was a Deschutes County prosecutor during Leriche’s tenure, said Leriche was “very serious about taking on violent crime, and often took on cases himself.

“He’s an excellent trial attorney,” Gunnels said. “His skillset in Jefferson County is going to be missed.”

Even so, Jefferson County law enforcement has struggled to deal with disproportionately high amounts of violent crime. In 2022, Jefferson County saw a higher rate of shootings than both Deschutes and Crook counties, stretching prosecutors thin and delaying some cases, according to reporting by The Bulletin. According to Leriche, his office has carried seven murder cases over the last few years, a dramatically higher number than neighboring Crook County, which is similar in size but has five deputy prosecutor positions compared to four in Jefferson County.

The positions are rarely full, Leriche said, meaning more cases fall to each attorney.

An emphasis on remote work since the pandemic and a competitive market has made hiring difficult.

“How much they’re getting paid makes a big difference in being able to recruit and maintain people,” Leriche said.

Leriche’s exit follows the resignation of the county’s second-ranking prosecutor, Brentley Foster, who left in March after a decade in the office. Leriche said the office recently became fully staffed by hiring a new prosecutor, but another plans to leave at the end of the month.

“We seem to have a continuous, uninterrupted job listing,” he said.

According to Kateri Walsh, a spokesperson for the Oregon State Bar, lack of staffing among rural prosecutors offices — so called “legal deserts” — is a growing concern.