Houston police arrested 27-year-old Zachary Woolridge last week. He's wanted for the west bank murder of a 19-year-old back in January in the 6400 block of General Meyer and it's wasn’t his first time.

Sources say New Orleans Police have arrested Woolridge 29 times since 1999, but he's only been convicted of a crime twice - once on minor drug charges, and in 2004 for battery of a police officer with injuries. He was sentenced to three years' probation.

During the three years of probation Woolridge was arrested and released 13 times, mostly by former Judge Charles Elloie.

After a 2006 arrest for public intimidation the district attorney’s office refused to prosecute Woolridge. Elloie once again put him back on the streets and investigators believe he was involved in a triple shooting and murder.  The district attorney’s office also refused those charges, saying witnesses wouldn't testify.

Current District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson, who replaced Eddie Jordan late in 2007, said the Woolridge situation is something they are trying to avoid.

“It's unfortunate,” she said. “We face this on a lot of cases, you know, cases that may be prosecutable. But if we can't really get the people in place to testify in these cases, we can't prosecute the cases."

Three months into the job, Landrum-Johnson still faces a lot of the same problems that caused Jordan to step down last October.

Jordan was blasted for failing to make prosecution decisions in time and allowing the charges against thousands of suspects to be dropped under the state's 701 law, which requires defendants to be charged within 60 days or let go. Woolridge was one of them.

Landrum-Johnson has all but eliminated 701 releases during her first three months in office. Last month only one person was 701 released.

"We've had a tremendous turnaround in morale,” she said. “Everybody's doing a great job. We're getting some great convictions in court."

And, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, which has been tracking quarterly progress of the justice system since the storm, the district attorney’s office is making progress, and accepting more violent crime cases. 

"It's not just accepting a bunch of cases, but I think the quality of those cases is also improving so it will really make a difference in the conviction rate,” said Landrum-Johnson.

But sources in the criminal justice system tell Eyewitness News that they have concerns that the cases that would've been 701 released are getting disposed of another way.  Statistics show that compared to this time last year, more cases are being refused for prosecution. And of those charges that were initially accepted months ago, the district attorney's office is dismissing 35 percent of them.

"The cost is more than just incidental,” said Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “We're talking about hundreds of cases that are being dismissed at roughly twice the rate they were pre-Katrina. That is the sign of a problem."

Goyeneche says dismissals often happen months after cases are initially accepted so it won't be known for some time how many cases currently accepted will eventually be dismissed.

Landrum-Johnson said one of her biggest achievements is increased cooperation with the NOPD, especially between the DA’s Violent Offender Unit and the NOPD’s homicide division.

"We do have DA's on call available for consultation with police,” she said. “We have not had great success with going on the scene. Often times you have to realize that it may conflict with something that we have going on in the office. Obviously, if it's happening during the day and they're in court, they can't do that."

But Landrum-Johnson says that changes are in the works to make that communication even closer by bringing assistant district attorneys into different police district stations.

"Assistant district attorneys are going to be assigned to specific police districts,” she said. “They won't be there 24/7, but they'll be there on a regular basis, so that if there's questions, they will be able to get in touch with one another."

Landrum-Johnson also says she's hoping to get her permanent office back up and running within the next year.

Currently, boxes of court files line the hallways at the temporary location on Poydras Street and Landrum Johnson says the repairs to the office will include a new computer system linking the office with other agencies within the justice system. It's all an attempt to change the problems of the past like what happened with Woolridge.

Goyeneche estimates that fewer than 70 people were convicted of significant felony offenses that result in significant jail time last year.

It's why Landrum-Johnson is focusing on the future of criminal justice and her role in the system.

It was widely reported when Landrum-Johnson took over for Jordan that she wouldn’t run for the full time position, which will be up for grabs later this year.

Johnson says she never said that and that she is ‘keeping my options open.’