The Washington County District Attorney is speaking out about that recent State Auditor General’s report that criticized the county’s Common Pleas Court process of allowing criminal defendants to perform community service in place of paying costs, fines and other monetary assessments. Gene Vittone says the report “extrapolated a small sample of reviewed cases” over a four year period and “incorrectly concluded that this failure deprived the state and county” of more than $1.5 million dollars. In a written statement released Tuesday afternoon, Vittone went on to say “Auditor General Defoor’s conclusion that the process in Washington County is flawed and that a hearing in court is necessary is legally incorrect”. The District Attorney says community service is routinely offered as part of plea offers for first time offenders and, in return, many municipalities and non-profits in the county receive the benefit of free labor. He also says it would be unfortunate if the program were to suffer solely due to an incorrect legal interpretation reached by the Auditor General.