HomeMy WebLinkAboutVillage of Cayuga Heights Court Annual Report 2015.PDF2015
ANNUAL REPORT
VILAGE 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, VILLAGE JUSTICE
There was a small decrease in the number of cases from20l4 to 2015 in the general categories
of Vehicle and Traffic Law, Penal Law and local infractions. Fines collected also decreased.
Following the summary of data immediately below is a short narrative 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 Types 2014 2015
Vehicle + Traffic Law (V+TL) 1,307 1,202
(including parking)
Penal/Criminal Law 32 16
Civil/Small Claims 14
1,340 1,222Total Cases
Total Funds Collected $ 101.365 ,f 83"143
Number of V+TL Trials 15 14
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 in20l5
(I,202) is about 10olo lower than in 2014 (1,307) but is still more than twice what it was in 2011
(506). Some of the charges on cases with the most significant changes in numbers from 2014 to
2015 include: speeding (down from 113 to 92); stop sign violations (down from27 to 7);
failure to obey a traffic control device (down from 319 to 233); seatbelts (down from 17 to 6);
cell phones (up from 23 to 39); and unlicensed operation (up from 13 to 19).
Alcohol related driving offenses (DWAI, DWI and ADWI) are important cases and their
numbers increased from 13 in2014 to 23 in20l5. That being said, we have had a wide range of
numbers for these offenses during the past five years - from a low of 2 in2}ll to the present
high in 2015 of 23. Unfortunately, the trend continues to go up.
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The number of cases that were dismissed stayed the same during 2014 and2015 (695). Almost
all of these cases were for minor equipment, inspection, and insurance card violations. Most of
the dismissals were done in theoointerests 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 plea 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 a role in my determining if a
pleabargain is appropriate or not.
Parking (See attached chart.)
Although parking tickets arc part of the V+TL statistics, we identi$r 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 afiargn a defendant or hold atrial for a parking ticket. Nevertheless, the Court Clerk
must always process the paperwork and occasionally alrange for payment of the fine. The
number of parking tickets has changed little - 88 in 2014;91 in2015.
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.
Infractions are the lowest level of criminal cases and the penalty is rarely more than a small fine.
Misdemeanors and felonies are more serious and 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, aggravatedunlicensed operation (AUO), leaving the scene of
an injury accident, etc. Those misdemeanor V+TL cases appear only in the V+TL statistics
chart. The most serious charges, felonies, do not appear in any of our statistics at all. That is
because the computer program only identifies cases that are 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 modifu thatwarrant, to arraign, 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 occurred prior to our transfening the case to the county court,
yet none of the activities, or even the case itself, are reflected in our statistics.
-3-
In 2015 the number of our criminal law cases (16) was half of what it was in2014 (32). At least
one quarter of these cases were not especially serious, e.g.4 involved 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 15
V+TL trials in 2014 and 14 in2015. 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.)
Both the Civil and the Small Claims case categories concern non-criminal and non-V+TL
matters. They involve disputes between people or orgarrizations. They are not actions brought
by the government against a person for violation of the criminal law. And 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 4 in 2015) but include subject matter of importance to the parties, e.g.
landlord-tenant matters, evictions, 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 unless the parties agree on
asking for a delay.
Other activities
Other activities that do not appear in our reports of data include: late night arraignments, review
of search and 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. A11 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 in 2015. I
completed the required two days of Advanced Continuing Judicial Education Program for town
and village justices.
The Tompkins County Clerk had recently received $150,000 shared services grant from New
York State to scan older court records of town and village courts. Ms. Kannus has applied to the
County to have the Village Court records, which are currently taking large amounts of storage
space in our basement, to be scanned and placed on microfilm. This project will take some time,
because once the records are scanned, they will need to be organized andreviewed by the Court
Clerk. Once the scanning and organization is completed, the paper copies of the records will then
be destroyed. This process may cause the Court Clerk's hours to increase somewhat this year,
but ultimately the records will be more easily accessed and we will save much storage space.
In the summer of 2015 I accepted the offer to sit on the Tompkins County Council of
Governments panel that is reviewing the structure of the twelve municipal courts in Tompkins
County. Although the initial impetus of the committee's formation was the possibility of saving
costs by potentially consolidating courts, it became clear that no form of consolidation would
likely save money. The focus of the committee then shifted to the possibility of improving the
quality of the town and village courts. There have been meetings almost every two weeks since
the summer of 2015 and the committee has been gathering facts and considering proposals for
quality improvements. It is anticipated that the committee will be issuing a report in the spring
or early summer of 2016.
Also, in late 2015I was appointed for a five year term to the New York State Office of Court
Administration's Advisory Council on Judicial Ethics. I am the only town or village justice on
the committee. The committee receives requests for opinions on ethical issues from all levels of
judges in New York. If the judge follows the written opinion, s/he will be provided some level
of insulation from complaints that the judge acted unethically and would be subject to discipline.
The committee meets seven times ayear in New York City and requires several days of
preparation in anticipation of each meeting.
I am running for re-election again (seventh time) again this March for another four year term as
the Village Justice.
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 16,2016
Glenn G. Galbreath
Villase Justice
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Vf UlCLe + TRAFFIC CRSES U*rt . - most are not criminal misdemeanors or felonies)E
2011
:--M 2gtsl_20141 2015
speedinq ot 93 75 113 92
soeedinq in schoolzone tl 1B 23 2
stop siqn J 11 12 27 I
fail to obev traff. control device 91 166 216 3'19 255
DWAI (driv. with ability impaired)1 h 7 2C
DWI (driv. while intox. - misd. or felony)I 1 z z
ADWI (aggravated DWI - misd. orlqleny)0 0 1 1
failto keep right 15 10 o .t
I
no passing zone/follow to closelY 'lI 2 8 0
AUO (aggrav. unlicens. oper. - misd. or felony)2 I z 1 0
unlicensed operation 7 12 o 13 19
suspnd./revokd. license (misd. or felony)0 0 A
I 0 0
unreqistered vehicle z I 0 14
uninspected vehicle 1 o z 12 o
equipment violation 6 '1 ?12 12
seatbelt 10 5 tt o
no Insurance 0 0 0 0 c
cell phone 43 64 39 23 JY
other 16 27 34 41
TOTAL CONVICTIONS 271 429 453 609 507
TOTAL DISMISSED 235 372 czY 695 695
AGD (see below)10 18 10 4 13
PARKING TICKETS 127 147 167 BB 91
ToTAL V+TL GASES 506 966 959 1307 1202
SCOFFLAWED CASES (see below)75 51 94 132 190
LIFTED LICENSE SUSPENSION (see below)
V+TL TRIALS 14 19 14 15 14
dismissal. lt is used when the defendalt and prosecutor ag
{har tha nonaltrr imnnsed hv a conviction is disorooortionate to the actual offense, and they agree to
conOitions nvnich if met ny tfre OetenOant would warrant later dismissal of the chatge' The
orosecutor then must secure the justice's agreement before it can be issued.
"Ranffletanr! nr.qc.s" are fhose where a defendant faih )d to appear or to pay. The Court Clerk notifies
ffileswhichinturnsusoendsthedefendant'sdriver's|icenseuntilthecaseisfu||y
"esolved. In serious cases, the Court may also issue a bench warrant for the defendant's arrest.
"Lifted License Suspension" is a new fee ($70) the State requires when a licen ;e is restored after susPension.
PErunucRMlNAL LAW CASES(misdemeanors and i@
OFFENSE 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
alcohol
alcohol in the park .l
I 3
assault
aqqravated harassment
bad check
burqlary 1
crim. contempt
crim. imoersonation
crim. mischief A
I
4I
crim. poss. forqed instrument
crim. poss. stolen property I z 1
crim. poss. of a weapon z 1
:rim. tampering
Coq ordinance z 2 z
disorderly conduct 4 I 2 1
fireworks
fuqitive
qrand larcenv 4 ,|1
harassment 1 1 1 z
illegal; dumping
menactnq 1
motor vehicle - unlawful use
open burning 1
noise ordinance (new 2012)6 8
oark - after hours I 14 11 11 4
park - lawn 1
cetite larceny 1 1
ooss. of a controlled substance ?J J
public lewdness
rape - attempted
reckless endanqerment
resistinq arrest
scheme to defraud
sellinq controlled substance
trespass 1 1 1 1
unlawful imprisonment
unlawful contact with a minor
zoninq violation
other criminal 1 2
TOTAL CASES 6 38 37 32 16
GIVIL CASES
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
SMALL CLAIMS + REGULAR CIVIL 3 1 3 1 4
AttTtNES, FEES + suRcHAreEglqlyl L + CRIMINAL)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
COLLECTED $41,220 s65.073 70,497 $101-,365 $83,143
OWED BY DEFENDANTS $25,175 $20,985 21,750 $31,793 $34,1 50