OSSIPEE, N.H. (AP) – The state’s last part-time county prosecutor is pleading with lawmakers to approve funding for another assistant in hopes of better handling her office’s immense caseload.

Carroll County Attorney Robin Gordon is asking for $38,000 to hire a third assistant. Her attorneys are nearly burned out, she told lawmakers recently, with one juggling a caseload of 220 cases and the other 160.

“They are working nights, weekends … we’re in trial all the time,” she said. “It’s not a good working environment at this point.”

Gordon said racing through trials leaves little time in between to be “thoughtful about the case.” Post-case analyses that could improve performances and boost conviction rates, she said, are just not happening. “We’re triaging at this point,” she said.

Gordon’s office is struggling to keep with Superior Court Judge Edward Fitzgerald, who has vowed to smash through the county’s backlog of cases. Even during a recent snowstorm, there were 35 cases on the docket, Gordon said.

Police say mounting crime numbers have been made more formidable by an influx of complex cases. Crimes such as child abuse and burglary sprees with multiple defendants and crime scenes can require long investigations and sit-down interviews with numerous witnesses.

“Our caseload is just huge,” Gordon said. “I knew it was going to come to a brick wall at some point.”

It doesn’t help that the phones in her office keep going dead. “About twice a week,” Gordon said. “If we unplug (the router box) and plug it back in, then the phones work.”