HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014 Annual Report VCH Court.pdf20r4
ANNUAL REPORT
VILLAGE OF
CAYUGAHEIGHTS COURT
Glenn G. Galbreath
Village of Cayuga Heights Justice
Patricia Kannus
Village of Cayuga Heights Court Clerk
ANNUAL REPORT OF'
GLENN G. GALBREATH, VtrLLAGE JUSTICE
There was a significant increase in the number of cases from 2013 to 2014. Vehicle and Traffic
cases increased3To/o, even though criminal and civil cases stayed about the same and parking
tickets decreased by half. Collection of fines and surcharges increased 43Yo as did the amount
owed by defendants.
Following the summary of data immediately below is a short nanative about the data and other
court activities for the year. The charts attached at the end contain a little more detail and cover
a five year period.
SUMMARY OF' CASE ACTIVITY
Case Tltpes 2013 2014
Vehicle + Traffic Law (V+TL) 952 1,307
(including parking)
Penal/Criminal Law 37 32
Civil/Small Claims 3 1
Total Cases 992 1,340
Total Funds Collected $ 70,497 ,t 101,365
Number of V+TL Trials 14 15
Vehicle and Traffic Law (V+TL) Cases (See attached chart.)
Vehicle and traffic law matters account for the majority of the Court's cases, fines and
surcharges collected and the Court Clerk's time. The total number of V+TL cases in 2014
(1,307) is 37%o higher than in 2013 (952). The charges with the largest increases in numbers
were: speeding (from 75 to | 13); stop sign violations (from 12 to 27); failure to obey a traffic
control device (from 2l6to 319); and seatbelts (from 5 to I7). There were noticeable decreases
in case numbers involving speeding in a school zone (from 23 to 2) and cell phone usage while
driving (from 39 to 23).
-2-
Alcohol related driving offenses (DWAI, DWI and ADWD stayed about the same this year (13)
as last year (11). That being said, we have had a wide range of numbers for these offenses
during the past five years - from a low of 2 in 20 I 1 to a high of 2l rn 2009 .
Dismissals of cases rose significantly from329 in20l3 to 695 in20l4. Almost all of these cases
were for minor equipment, inspection, and insurance card violations. Most of the dismissals
were done in the "interests ofjustice," either because there was no violation (e.g. driving without
insurance, but later it was shown that insurance actually was in effect at the time of the ticket) or
the violation was minor and quickly remedied (e.g. for a recently expired inspection or
registration or minor equipment violation). Dismissals also can occur when the prosecution and
defense enter into an agreement and then together ask and convince me that justice would be
served by my agreeing to their plea bargain as well. Sometimes plea bargains result in reducing
or dismissing some of the charges in return for a guilty plqa on another charge. In some courts,
the pressure of high case loads can be a significant incentive for the judge to accept a plea
bargain proposed by the defense and prosecution. Because the Village Court's case numbers are
not overwhelming, case load pressure does not play arole in my determining if a plea bargain is
appropriate or not.
Parking (See attached chart.)
Although parking tickets are part of the V+TL statistics, we identiff them separately in the
attached chart, because the administrative processing frequently is done by the Police
Department and the Court Clerk without the need of my intervention. Only occasionally do I
need to anaign a defendant or hold a trial for a parking ticket. Nevertheless, the Court Clerk
must always process the paperwork and occasionally anange for payment of the fine. The
number of parking tickets decreased by 50% in from 167 in2013 to 88 in 2014.
PenaVCriminal Cases (See attached chart.)
The Penal/Criminal Law category includes local law and state law infractions, misdemeanors
and felonies. Generally, these are more serious than most V+TL matters and take more time.
The misdemeanors and felonies create a formal criminal record for a defendant that stays with
him/her for a lifetime. Not counted in the Penal/Criminal Cases statistics, even though many are
also misdemeanors or felonies, are some of the more serious V+TL offenses, e.g. DWI, ADWI,
reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation (AUO), leaving the scene of an injury
accident, etc. Those misdemeanor V+TL cases appear only in the V+TL statistics chart. Also,
non-V+TL felony charges do not appear in any of our statistics. That is because the computer
program only identifies cases thatare closed with a conviction or dismissal in our court. Felony
cases that arise in our court do not ultimately stay there and are not "closed or dismissed" there.
They eventually get transferred to the Tompkins County Court and, thus, never show up in our
computer statistics. For example, the murder case we had in the fall of 2014 brought me to court
four times (three of which were in the middle of the night): to review and sign a search warrant,
to modifii that warrant, to anaign, assign counsel and remand the defendant to jail, and to start a
preliminary hearing (which was ultimately waived by the defendant). All of these activities
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occurred prior to our transferring the case to the county court and none are reflected in our
statistics.
Ia20l4 the number of our criminal law cases stayed about the same - 37 in2013 and 32 in20I4.
At least half of these cases were not especially serious, e.g. 7 noise violations and I I people
visiting Sunset Park after hours.
Vehicle and Traffic Trials (See attached chart.)
The number of trials reflects only those held for V+TL cases and not for the criminal or civil
cases. Again this is a due to a limitation in our computer program's data collection. We had 14
V+TL trials in 2013 and 15 in20l4. This is still fairly low relative to what the court has done in
the past, e.g. in 1995 we had 124 V+TL trials.
Civil and Small Claims Cases (See attached chart.)
Although both the civil and small claims case categories cohcern non-criminal and non-V+TL
matters, the "Civil Docket" is technically different from "Small Claims." Both have the same
maximum monetary jurisdiction of $3,000, but the Small Claims cases use an expedited
procedure that is simpler, less expensive and more accessible to non-lawyer parties. Civil and
Small Claims cases make up the smallest number of cases (only I in20l4) but include subject
matter of importance to the parties, e.g. landlord-tenant matters, consumer transactions, contract
disputes over bills for professional services, etc. These cases tend to be time consuming and
often result in longer trials and written opinions. The Court routinely refers the parties to the
Community Dispute Resolution Center for mediation as soon as the case is filed with the court,
but does not delay the court's proceedings while mediation is being considered or used.
Other activities
We do not include in any of the data reports: late night anaignments, search or arrest warrants,
pretrial hearings, status conferences, motion hearings/arguments, orders of protection,
declarations of delinquency, preliminary felony hearings, hearings on violations of probation, or
sentencings. All are time consuming and important activities, but collecting the data on them is
not automatic by our computer.
Patricia Kannus, the Court Clerk, attended clerkship refresher training sessions in20l4. I
completed the required two days of Advanced Continuing Judicial Education Program for town
and village justices. I also did a presentation this week to the Ithaca City Club based on my
experiences in the Village Court.
-A-
Conclusion
Should you have any questions or comments, please contact me or the Court Clerk. Further, I
remind everyone that the court sessions are held every Tuesday evening starting at 6:00 PM and
the first Thursday of every month starting at 5:00 PM. The public in general, and you in
particular, are invited to observe these sessions.
Dated: February 12,2015
Glenn G. Galbreath
Village Justice
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