FAYETTEVILLE — May 30, 1996 - 9:40 a.m. EDT

Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis acknowledged Wednesday that the number of drunken-driving cases that get thrown out of court or reduced to a lesser charge has increased in the past couple of years.

So Grannis has announced some new procedual changes to reduce the number of dismissals.

Bascially, no drunken-driving case will be dropped or reduced without written permission from Gannis. Before Wednesday, assistant prosecutors were authorized to reduce or drop charges.

The number of cases dismissed by the District Attorney?s Office went from 304 in 1990 to 945 last year. The number of cases plea-bargained to a lesser charge went from 10 in 1990 to 372 in 1995.

"The volume of it was surprising," Grannis said.

Grannis has now created dismissal forms that must be signed by a judge and the district attorney before a case can be dropped or reduced