County to Open Sex Offender Court

Individuals who come through the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on charges covered by Megan’s Law rules will soon find themselves assigned to a special system. The State Supreme Court has given the go ahead for the county to open the state’s first Sex Offender Court.

Local officials began the process of building the Sex Offender Court late last year using a similar court in Buffalo, New York as a guide. They are now ready to roll out the new process June 23rd. Administrative Judge Jeffery Manning says after the defendants are identified in a preliminary hearing they will be put into the Sex Offender Court and the case will be watched closely by one of three judges. The idea is to make sure the case gets to a plea or trial within 90 days.

“The purpose of close judicial involvement in these cases is to assure that both sides have all the information necessary to go forward,” said Manning, “Undue delays are avoided, thus protecting the victim from being subjected to continual reappearances in court and providing a prompt resolution of the case for the accused.”

The court will first focus on accountability according to Manning and then on treatment. That is opposite tack taken by the “problem solving courts” set up in Allegheny County for drug offenders, veterans and other select cases.

While the convicted is on probation a probation officer trained to deal with sex offenders and the judge assigned to the case will closely monitor them. Allegheny County Adult Probation Director Thomas McCaffery said having the judge involved gives his officers more clout. McCaffery said that seems to have been key to the success of the court in Buffalo. “They had the ability to react to violations from the offenders on a higher level than we normally in probation and parole can do,” said McCaffery. Usually judges only get involved when probation is revoked.

District Court administrator Raymond Billotte said the overall goals of the special court is to reduce recidivism, make the community safer and improve services to victims.

The court is expected to handle about 300 cases a year. An evaluation process is being created and if it is successful it could be expanded to other counties.

Vets Court Gets Boost

A joint effort between the commonwealth and the U-S Department of Veterans Affairs to provide vets with access to a court system and health services when they get into legal trouble is set to expanding statewide.

Like the mental health and drug courts, the Pennsylvania Veterans Justice Program will find veterans in trouble with the law and provide them with social services. Tony Coppola is a Vietnam War vet from Pittsburgh who has benefited from the program in Allegheny County. When he was arrested for drunk driving, he was put on probation and treated for drinking problem. He says without the program he may not be alive now. “They teach you things and being with all veterans, it helped me out quite a bit,” says Coppola.

State Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery was instrumental in bringing the alternative to jail time to Pennsylvania. He says it's also a cost saving measure for local governments because it takes veterans off their court dockets. “They take these people, they're diverted out of the court, given over to the VA. Whatever their needs may be, the Veterans Administration comes in with federal dollars and takes care of that individual to allow him to get back into society,” says McCaffery.

More than 650 vets have gone through the program since its inception in 2009. It's currently up and running in Allegheny, Lackawanna and Philadelphia counties. The Pennsylvania Justice Program is a joint effort between the state and the federal government.

Listen to a story produced by WDUQ as the Veterans Court was launching in Allegheny County.

Jury Scam Calls Asked for Personal Information

Citizens of Allegheny County began calling the County Courthouse last week voicing concern after receiving calls from people who claimed they were following up those who failed to show for jury duty. The callers asked for personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers and bank data. It is suspected the callers intended to use that information to steal the identities and access the banks accounts of those called.

Allegheny County Court Administrator Ray Billotte says he doesn't know how many people received these scam calls, but the court was alerted when citizens called in wondering if these messages were legitimate.

"The court's jury offices received approximately three phone calls from prospective jurors, regarding this potential scam, asking why or was it proper for this office to be asking for specific information," Billotte says.

According to Billotte, jury notice will never be given to citizens in any form other than United States mail.

"It's never by phone we only use the United States mail. We issue a summons, the President Judge and myself, to prospective jurors giving them the date, time and information as to when they are to appear," Billotte says.

"I caution all of our citizens, anytime anyone calls you asking for specific personal information, particularly if they are portraying themselves as an agent of the court, they should immediately stop the phone call and contact their local law enforcement office as well as their jury management office," Billotte says.

The Allegheny County Jury Management Office's telephone number is 412-350-5336. Police have not named or arrested any suspects.

Case Could Affect Immunity for Witnesses

According to published reports, in a recent local case, a witness said he had evidence to show that a man charged with homicide is innocent. The District Attorney's office didn't believe he was telling the truth and and refused to grant the witness immunity.

The judge said he has no authority to grant immunity to a witness. He said there wasn't a reason why the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office was withholding immunity.

The DA had the witness under subpoena and the witness invoked 5th Ammendment priveledges to refuse to testify. Because the witness would not testify, the Judge said the Defendent in the case would not receive a fair trial. He dismissed the case. The commonwealth has appealed that.

Bruce Antkowiak, an Assistant professor of Law at Duquesne University says this case is not the norm. In federal courts, a judge can either grant immunity to a witness or force a prosecutor to do it. This issue has come up previously he said. He is not connected to the case in any way.

One Judge, One Family

Allegheny County's Family Court has reorganized in line with best practices across the country to serve families better. Judge David Wecht says the court used to have separate divisions, adult and juvenile, with most judges assigned to one or the other. This meant families with different issues would have to start over with a different judge, unfamiliar with their family, when they came back to court, which was costly in both time and money.

Now, besides increasing in number from thirteen to fifteen, the judges have completed cross training so they can deal with all family issues, ranging from custody, divorce, juvenile delinquency, juvenile dependency, protection from abuse, alimony, etc.

Wecht says the reorganization is timely because the number of crossover cases has been increasing in recent years.

Judges are reviewing the new procedures weekly, monthly and quarterly to see what else might improve the quality of service in Family Court, according to Wecht.