Report Lays Out District Attorney Joe Khan’s Blueprint For The Office

Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan has released a 30-page transition report outlining a blueprint to overhaul the office that handles prosecution.

The report is titled “Building a 21st Century DA’s Office” and was compiled over 120 days by a committee of local attorneys, staff, and subject-matter experts.

“We live in challenging times, when people have lost faith in government at all levels. District Attorneys, particularly in Pennsylvania, are uniquely situated to rise above politics and take action to make peoples’ lives better. With the right team and the right plan, DA Khan can help restore that faith by showing Bucks County and all of Pennsylvania what a law office of the people can do to serve justice for all,” the report reads.

The report, according to the office, is to serve as a roadmap for Khan, a Democrat and former Philadelphia and federal prosecutor who took office in January as the county’s 35th district attorney.

“I’m a little overwhelmed at how much thought and time and care these amazing individuals put into this,” Khan said in an interview with LevittownNow.com. “It is an extremely thorough and thoughtful assessment, as well as roadmap for how we take the office that I walked into and how we make the adjustments that are necessary.”

Khan, who previously served as county solicitor, said his team has already begun putting several of the report’s recommendations into action.

The office is led by First Assistant District Attorney Kristin McElroy, a veteran of the office, and Chief of Staff and Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Flynn, a former litigator and prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

The report calls for expanding the office’s scope to address corporate misconduct, worker exploitation, consumer fraud, and environmental crimes.

Khan said those areas have been largely neglected by district attorneys across the state but are permitted under Pennsylvania law.

“These are areas where no one’s coming to save us,” Khan said. “We need to figure out how we are going to take steps to protect workers, protect consumers, protect the environment.”

According to the report, the office has historically lacked the infrastructure to handle such cases independently. It cited the 2025 incident where the office deferred to state and federal authorities after the jet fuel pipeline leak that contaminated drinking water in Upper Makefield Township.

“When that catastrophe occurred, there was no alternative,” Khan said. “This office had no plan in place to address something like that. That can’t happen again.”

As part of the changes, the office has repurposed an existing prosecutor position to create its first civil enforcement officer, which is filled by Elizabeth Oquendo.

Future plans include using insurance fraud resources to target employers who misclassify workers, hiring a dedicated consumer protection attorney, and building specialized prosecutions against illegal dumping and PFAS, lead, and corporate water contamination, the report said.

As a way to fund the efforts, the report recommends securing federal and state grants, as well as earmarking future litigation recoveries from pending price-fixing and PFAS lawsuits.

“I don’t think the people of Bucks County ought to be paying for the remediation of PFAS chemicals,” Khan said. “I think it’s companies like 3M and DuPont that ought to pay for it. And I think they can also help us pay for an environmental justice attorney to do some of the work that we’re going to do in the future.”

The transition team opined that the office had inconsistent policies regarding bail, probation, and sentencing, which contributed to case backlogs and staff burnout.

The report suggests resolving appropriate lower-level cases early at the district court level to save resources that could be spent preparing for trial in the Court of Common Pleas.

The report also calls for looking at expanded use of pretrial detention for dangerous offenders while adjusting bail recommendations for non-dangerous defendants.

“This is not about more people in jail or less people in jail,” Khan said. “This is about making sure that if people are in jail, it’s the people who belong to be in jail.”

Khan cited a recent case involving a defendant who fired at Bucks County law enforcement officers, where the office successfully sought to hold the defendant without bail rather than requesting a high cash amount.

“We understood that this is somebody who was a drug dealer, might have access to all kinds of wealth that we may not immediately be able to find the source of, and really was someone who didn’t deserve to have any chance to buy his way out of trouble,” Khan said.

The report also recommends establishing a Special Investigations Unit with independent reporting structures to investigate misconduct by public officials and law enforcement.

Another recommendation is to empanel a new grand jury to assist with sensitive investigations.

Khan explained that he views the power to issue grand jury reports — even without bringing charges — as a highly underutilized tool.

The report calls for creating a standing committee of veteran homicide prosecutors to advise on whether to seek the death penalty, while prohibiting its use as plea-bargaining leverage.

“We cannot come to the conclusion that this crime was so heinous, this offender was so dangerous, that they need to be put to death — unless they will save us the trouble of going to trial,” Khan said. “We cannot do that.”

Updates to the office space at the Justice Center in Doylestown Borough and moving the chief and a squad of county detectives from a separate building back into the office with prosecutors were also recommended.

The competitive job market for attorneys often causes staff changes in local prosecutors’ offices, but the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office has experienced heavier turnover since Khan’s reorganization, with several longtime prosecutors moving to new jobs in the private and public sectors.

Khan said the office has been staffing up with experienced and fresh prosecutors, adding that there is a new class of eight assistant district attorneys who will join the office this summer.

“To each one of them, I let them know this is going to be the toughest job they ever loved,” Khan said.

As part of the transition, public-facing communications will also shift, moving away from a reliance on offender mugshots toward content highlighting victims and law enforcement.

Mugshots will still be used, but the focus will pivot toward victims, Khan said.

“I don’t like the idea of glorifying criminals when we should really be uplifting victims and praising the work of law enforcement and prosecutors,” Khan said.

The transition team suggested turning off social media commenting on the office’s accounts, which the office recently did. The report cites other prosecutors who have taken similar steps.

Khan took over the office from former District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, a Republican.

The report recommends a formal progress assessment one year after its the transition report’s issuance.