A former advocate in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s victim-support division says her caseload reached 160 cases by her third week. Juli Miller was fired in June 2026, after four months on the job, amid broader concerns about turnover and continuity of service. The Salt Lake Tribune reported Miller’s account and accounts from three other former advocates; division leaders disputed claims that turnover was unusually high or the workplace unhealthy.
The dispute sits within a division created to make support more continuous. In February 2020, District Attorney Sim Gill consolidated roughly 40 social workers and advocates into a single unit intended to help victims navigate court and connect with services, KSL reported when the division launched. The Tribune reported that Miller was dismissed after a June 11 meeting and that director Asha Parekh said Miller had communicated false information to colleagues. Those accounts describe a personnel decision; they do not independently establish why the division has experienced turnover.
Service volume and continuity
The Tribune reported that the office screened 20,000 cases in 2025 and that advocates can support as many as 170 victims at a time. Gill said he plans to bring advocate caseloads below 100. These figures describe workload and screening, not how many victims sought services, how many received a particular type of help, or whether individual cases experienced an interruption in support.
That distinction matters because Utah recognizes crime victims’ rights and provides victim-support services, according to the Utah Department of Criminal Justice. Those general protections do not specify an advocate-to-victim caseload or show whether the county’s staffing meets demand.
Funding context does not identify a local cause
Federal funding has been a concern for victim-service programs nationally: Crime Victims Fund award caps were $1.9 billion in 2023 and $1.2 billion in 2024. VOCA Victim Assistance grants flow through states to local organizations and public agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime explains. The national decline alone does not show that a particular Salt Lake County position or service lost funding.
Utah’s funding picture also complicates any direct link between national grant reductions and local staffing. The state’s 2026 Victim Services Study says state allocations closed the recent federal funding gap and expanded total statewide funding. Funding increases did not reach every service category, and allocations varied across regions.
The central question left by the competing accounts is whether the division can sustain consistent support at the workload levels reported by former advocates. The Tribune’s reporting documents their concerns and the leadership’s disagreement; the cited public data do not resolve that dispute or measure the effect of turnover on victims’ experiences.
