HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 Annual Court Report2418
ANNUAL REPORT
VILLAGE OF
CAYUGA HEIGHTS 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 28% decrease in the number of cases coming to the court from 2017 to 2018 and
that decrease was primarily in traffic offenses. Fines and surcharges collected for 2018 also
similarly decreased, but the cumulative amount owed by defendants to the court continues to
drop. The Village also recently was awarded another Justice Court Action Plan grant for air
conditioning the courtroom/village hall.
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 provide a little more detail and cover
a five year period.
SUMMARY OF CASE ACTIVITY
Case Tvnes 2017 2018
Vehicle + Traffic Law (V+TL) 900 651
(including parking)
Penal/Criminal Law 17 21
Civil/Small Claims 4 5
Total Cases 921 677
Total Funds Collected $ 62,614 $ 46,408
Number of V+TL Trials 5 6
Vehicle and Traffic Law (V+TL) Cases (See attached chart.)
Vehicle and traffic law matters are the majority of the court's cases, fines and surcharges
collected and the court clerk's time. The total number of V+TL cases received by the court in
2018 (65 t) is 28% lower than in 2017 (900). The decrease was generally proportionate among
the different types of vehicle and traffic offenses.
Alcohol related driving offenses [driving with ability impaired (DWAI), driving while
intoxicated (DWI), and aggravated driving while intoxicated (ADWI)] are important cases and
their numbers dropped significantly, 16 in 2017 and only 3 in 2018. We have had a wide range
of numbers for alcohol/drug related driving offenses during the past five years but they seem to
be dropping from a high of 23 in 2015 to a low 3 in 2018. Maybe this is a good sign for the
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future, but that remains to be seen, particularly in light of the potential decriminalization of
marijuana.
The number of dismissed V+TL cases decreased 12% from 429 in 2017 to 381 in 2018. Almost
all of these cases were for minor equipment, inspection, and insurance card violations. Most of
the dismissals were done in the "interests of justice," 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 fixed (e.g. recently expired inspection or
registration stickers or minor equipment violations, all of which were quickly remedied).
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.
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 a 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 plea bargain is appropriate or not.
Parking (See attached chart.)
The number of parking tickets in 2018 (49) is down 50% from 2017 (101). Although parking
tickets are part of the V+TL statistics, we identify them separately in the attached chart. The
administrative processing frequently is done by the Police Department and the Court Clerk
without the need of my intervention because most people plead guilty and pay the set fine. Only
occasionally do I need to arraign a defendant or hold a trial for a parking ticket. Nevertheless,
the Court Clerk must always process the paperwork and occasionally arrange for payment of the
fine.
Penal/Criminal Cases (See attached chart.)
The Penal/Criminal Law category includes local 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 hire/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. 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 remain here, nor are
they "closed or dismissed" here. 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, modify that warrant, arraign the defendant, assign counsel,
remand the defendant to jail, and start a preliminary hearing (which was ultimately waived by
the defendant). All of these activities occurred prior to transferring the case to the county court
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but they do not appear in our statistics. In 2018 the number of our criminal law cases (21) was
similar to 2017 (17).
Vehicle and Traffic Trials (See attached chart.)
The number of traffic offense trials is similar between 2017 (5) and 2018 (b). But these numbers
reflect only those trials for V+TL offenses. The data does not include criminal trials or civil
trials due again to a limitation in our computer program's data collection. Often trials are
scheduled but then the defendant changes her/his mind at the last minute and pleads guilty, thus
mooting the need for a trial. The number of trials in recent years is very 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 private disputes between people or organizations. 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 Small Claims cases use an expedited procedure that is simpler, less
expensive and more accessible to people without lawyers. Civil and Small Claims cases make
up the smallest number of cases (only 4 in 2017 and 5 in 2018), 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 proceedings while mediation is being considered or used unless the
parties agree to a delay.
Payment of fines, surcharues and bail by credit cards
In mid -2017, we started taking credit and debit card payments from defendants, in part because
the card companies no longer charged the court for use of the cards. After a full year of
experience in 2018 with the cards we are finding that probably half of the defendant payments
are with cards, a bit less than half are with checks and only about 10% use cash. Because the
cards and checks use electronic means for deposits, only cash payments require the court clerk to
physically make deposits at night after court. The lowered number of personal checks also
means there are fewer bounced checks. And maybe most important, adding credit and debit
cards makes the payment process easier for defendants as well as the court.
Collection of fines and surcharees (See attached chart.)
For the past dozen or so years the annual reports have identified how much money is
cumulatively owed to the court from all past defendants. Normally this cumulative total
increases every year. But in 2017 the amount all defendants owe the Court actually dropped,
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i.e., an increasing number of defendants are paying their current and past due fines and
surcharges. In fact, the amount these "scofflaw" defendants owe the Court dropped 16% from
$39,455 in 2016 to $33,150 in 2017. And in 2018, it has dropped again to $26, 425. Surely
there is a limit to how far this debt will drop. The court clerk and I suspect the reasons for this
positive development are due to the start of the Court's accepting credit cards and some extra
efforts we made to again remind defendants about their past due fines and surcharges. We sent
letters to a year's worth of non-paying defendants warning them that their failure to pay not only
will likely result in the loss of their driver's license and can allow the Court to enter a civil
judgment which can lead to a lien on the defendant's real estate and a negative credit record.
The Court Clerk began this process with letters to about 150 non-paying defendants from the last
year. About 50% have since paid. This not only reduces the debt owed to the Court, but helps
defendants avoid the very expensive consequences of non-payment (loss of license and
registration and extra fees to reinstate them). We plan to dip back even further into the list of
defendant scofflaws.
Other activities
Other activities that do not appear in our data reports include: after-hours arraignments, review
of search and arrest warrants, pretrial hearings, status conferences, motion hearingslarguments,
orders of protection, declarations of delinquency and re-sentencings, preliminary felony
hearings, hearings on violations of probation, legal research, drafting opinions, and sentencings.
All are time consuming and important activities, but collecting the data on them is not automatic
through our computer_
Patricia Kannus, the Court Clerk, has regularly attended clerkship training even though it was
not mandatory until the start of 2019. In 2018, I completed the required two days of Advanced
Continuing Judicial Education Program for town and village justices.
I also continue to work on the New York State Advisory Committee for Judicial Ethics and
attend five to seven meetings in New York City each year where we produce the 100+ ethics
opinions the Committee issues each year. These opinions are published in response to inquiries
from New York judges before they act on matters which raise ethical concerns. If the judge
follows the written opinion, s/he is presumptively protected from prosecution for a violation of
the Rules for Judicial Ethics.
In 2018 we applied for another Justice Court Action Program (JCAP) grant to improve the court
facilities. We have been. successful in the past to secure JCAP grants for projects such as the
handicapped entrance ramp and foyer modification to the Village building, a number of filing
cabinets for the court office, and the handicapped restrooms and attachment to the back of the
village building. In 2018 we requested $30,000 from JCAP in order to air condition the
courtroom (and Village Hall), fix the gutters over the court and reimburse the Village for the
electrical upgrading that was done in the court office. We just learned that JCAP awarded the
Village a grant of $5,500 to be paid toward the cost of air conditioning the courtroom. We will
need to move quickly because we must submit the bill for reimbursement by April 1, 2019.
A few years ago Tompkins County received a shared services grant from New York State to
scan, retain electronically, and destroy the older paper court records of town and village courts.
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Ms. Kamus sent out decades worth of our older paper court records. They have been scanned,
and we are still awaiting permission to finally shred them. When completed we will save a lot of
storage space and have easier access to the electronic records.
The court has formally invited the Village to arrange for our annual audit and expects that to
occur within the next month or two.
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: January 28, 2019 Respec lly 7subiid,
Glenn G. Galbreath
Village Justice
VEHICLE + TRAFFIC CASES (V+TL - most are not criminal misdemeanors or felonies)
'ACD" is an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. It is used when the defendant and prosecutor a
that the penalty imposed by a conviction is disproportionate to the actual offense, and they agree to
conditions which if met by the defendant would warrant later dismissal of the charge. The defendant and
prosecutor then must secure the justice's agreement before it can be issued.
"Scofflawed cases" are those where a defendant failed to appear or to pay. The Court Clerk notifies
the Dep't of Motor Vehicles which in turn suspends the defendant's driver's license until the case is fu
resolved. 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 license is restored after suspension.
CONVICTIONS
OFFENSE (generally infractionsl
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017 _
___2018
speeding
75
23
113
2
92
69
60
42
speeding in school zone
51 1 5
4
stop sign_
12
27
7
4I
4
2
fail to obeytraff. control device _
bWAI (driv. with ability impaired)
216
319
233
257
191
164
6
7
20 13 10
3
DWI (drivwhile intox. - misd. or felony)
2
5
2
4 �
5 _
0
ADWI (aggravated DWI - misd. or felony) T
fail to keep right
3
9
1
1
0
1
0
1
7 10 1
8
no passing zone/follow to closely
— 2
8
0
2
1
0
AUO (aggray. unlicens. oper. - misd. or felony)
2
91
1
13,
i
0
5
2
2
unlicensed operation
19 13 13
6
suspnd.lrevokd. license (misd. or felony)
1
0
0
1
1
_
0
unregistered vehicle
uninspected vehicle_
equipment violation --4
0
9
14
10
4
2
121
_5
6 8 11
5
12
12
17'
7
6
10
7
- 4
10
9
3
seatbelt
no insurance
cell phone
5
01
391
0!
0
0
0
0
231 39 14 13
3_
other
27
341
41
23
22
14
609
5071
451
359
270
TOTAL CONVICTIONS 453
TOTAL DISMISSED
329
695
41
695
13
5551
11
429
10
381
4
ACD (see below) 10
PARKING TICKETS
167
88
91
.59
101
49
TOTAL V+TL CASES
959
1307 1202 1017 788
651
SCOFFLAWED CASES (see below)
94
132
190
164
206
133
LIFTED LICENSE SUSPENSION (see below)
V+TL TRIALS W
7
14
3
5
1
1
15 14 16 5
6
'ACD" is an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. It is used when the defendant and prosecutor a
that the penalty imposed by a conviction is disproportionate to the actual offense, and they agree to
conditions which if met by the defendant would warrant later dismissal of the charge. The defendant and
prosecutor then must secure the justice's agreement before it can be issued.
"Scofflawed cases" are those where a defendant failed to appear or to pay. The Court Clerk notifies
the Dep't of Motor Vehicles which in turn suspends the defendant's driver's license until the case is fu
resolved. 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 license is restored after suspension.
PENAUCRMINAL LAW CASES (misdemeanors and infractions, state + local)
OFFENSE 2013 2014 20151 2016 2017 2018
alcohol _ 1
alcohol in the park 1
assault
:aggravated harassment
bad check _
burglary _ 1
crim. contempt
crim. impersonation 1
crim. mischief _ 1
crim. poss. forged instrument
crim. poss. stolen property 2 1
crim. tampering 1
dog ordinance 3 21 5 2 1 2
disorderly conduct 1 21 1 11 4
fireworks
fugitive
grand larceny
1
1
harassment
1
1
2
illegal; dumping
menacing
motor vehicle - unlawful use
-
1
open burning
7
1
4
3
noise ordinance)
( new 2012 8
park - after hours
11
11
4 3
_
2
_
4
park - lawn
_
1
petite larceny
1
--�
1
pass. of a controlled substance
public lewdness
rape_- attempted _
3
3
7
5
4
reckless endangerment
T
resisting arrest
scheme to defraud
1
1 •:
1
selling controlled substance
trespass 1
unlawful imprisonment
_
unlawful contact with a minor
zoning violation
other criminal
1
3
2
2
TOTAL_ CASES _
37
32
16 16
___17
21
CIVIL CASES
2013 20141 2015
2016
2017
2018
SMALL CLAIMS + REGULAR CIVIL 3 1 4
0
4
5
ALL FINES, FEES + SURCHARGES (CIVIL + CRIMINAL)
20131 20141 2015
COLLECTED ANNUALLY 70,4971 $101,3651 $83,143
-� 2016
$75,223
2017
$62,614
-- 2018
$46,408
OWED BY DEFENDANTS CUMMULATIVELY 21,7501 $31,7931 $34,1501 $39,4551 $33,150 $26,425