Friday, March 28, 2003

Court changes approved by city council

By ALISA KING
Special to The Citizen

During Monday's Fairburn City Council meeting, Chief of Police Frederick Brown proposed new changes concerning the operation of the Municipal Court and indigent defense.

Fairburn City Councilmen approved the new changes, which consist of a new plan for handling prisoners who are charged with state offenses, a new plan for handling indigent cases in the Municipal Court, including funds for indigent defense personnel, and the hiring of a solicitor to prosecute cases in the Municipal Court.

The first change would be that all state offenses for which the municipal court does not have jurisdiction to dispose of would no longer be handles in the municipal court.

The municipal court only has committal jurisdiction for such state offenses. As part of the ongoing litigation over indigent defense in Fulton County, the parties have sought to implement a "seamless" process under which indigent defendants will have the same attorney representation throughout the case.

Under this plan, all state offenses will be initially brought to the regional jail facility. No hearings would occur at that jail with respect to these defendants; rather, the defendants would be transported to Fulton County within twelve hours of their arrest.

This plan will reduce the city's cost at the regional jail, but that cost will probably be offset by an increase in costs for officer time transporting the defendants to Fulton County, and other related costs. Chief Brown says he hopes this change will have a neutral effect on the city's budget.

The second change would be to implement an indigent offense system for those offenses which can be disposed of in the Municipal Court.

All state offenses will be immediately transferred to Fulton County and the municipal court's indigent program will have no application with respect to such offenses.

According to City Attorney Ted Meeker, the implementation of an indigent defense program will help eliminate the pending litigation and will also strengthen the constitutional rights of individuals who cannot afford an attorney.

Chief Brown mentions that it's important to understand that whenever an individual is confronted with a criminal charge that may require any type of incarceration, they are required to have a defense attorney to represent them if they are indigent, based upon the constitution and recent court rulings.

"In my experience with the City of Auburn, we found that the implementation of an indigent defense program benefited the city and resulted in minimal cost to the taxpayer. This additional cost would be borne by the fine process that is already in place."

The third and last change considered was the implementation of a solicitor's office. Chief Brown believes the talents of a solicitor would greatly enhance the creditability of our court system. Brown said there are several positive aspects to having a solicitor, such as

Speeding up cases.

Working well with other attorneys.

Increasing the pleas of better prepared cases before the judge.

Working well with support systems of the court.

Chief Brown assures that the officers state all of the elements of the crime before the judge, which is vitally important, as currently the officers are responsible for presenting their case.

This will result in better persecution as well as a better understanding by the judge as to the multitude of the crime that was committed by the offender. The solicitor also enables the court system to be fairer for the defendants while continuing to speed up the process and save overtime costs for the city of Fairburn.