Aim of central court is to speed up cases

The district magistrates will take turns hearing cases in the new court.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County court officials are hoping a new central court, set to begin in January, will help speed the criminal justice system and save the county money.
The goal, officials say, is to have fewer criminal trials by offering criminal defendants more options earlier.
The new court, which will be in a vacant county warehouse, will be where all criminal preliminary hearings will be held. Currently those hearings are held in each of the five district magistrate's offices throughout the county.
Philip Boudewyns, Lawrence County's court administrator, said the hope is that the system will evolve to where criminal defendants attending preliminary hearings will be offered plea agreements and then immediately be scheduled for sentencing. Those things are not done now, he said.
"Right at the initial stages of a criminal case, everybody will know when the next [court] date is and that has a tendency to allow defendants to review their options more easily," he said.
A warehouse adjacent to the county jail in the Lawrence County Government Center complex is being remodeled, and central court hearings are scheduled to begin in early January, Boudewyns said.
Background
Judge Ralph D. Pratt of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court proposed the switch to a central court system for all criminal preliminary hearings last summer when he submitted a plan to the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, something that can be done after each census.
Pratt also proposed realigning the boundaries of some magisterial districts to make the workload more equitable.
The change was necessary to shift some of the burden from District Magistrate Melissa Amodie of New Castle, whose annual caseload sometimes exceeds 5,000 per year, according to the report submitted to the state.
The other district justices' caseloads range from 1,685 to 3,362, the report said.
Under the new plan, Amodie and District Magistrate J.V. Lamb will no longer handle criminal preliminary hearings, but will continue to handle civil matters.
All criminal preliminary hearings -- a court proceeding where prosecutors must prove that there is enough evidence to hold a defendant for trial -- will be done by District Magistrates Samuel Battaglia, David Rishel and James Reed, Boudewyns said.
The justices will take turns hearing cases in the central court building and hearings will be held each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Boudewyns said.
Battaglia will take the first week starting Jan. 7, he added.
Beaver County's example
Lawrence County court officials say the effort to streamline the court system to more quickly dispose of criminal cases is based on a similar system that has been in place in Beaver County for the last 20 years.
Before 1980, all preliminary hearings in Beaver County were held in the nine district justice offices throughout that county, said Aileen Bowers, deputy district court administrator in Beaver County in charge of central court.
It was cumbersome for the district attorney, public defenders and sheriff's deputies to travel to those offices. Now all convene at the central court, located in the Beaver County Courthouse, she said.
The decrease in travel time and the central location have saved money for the county and allowed the district attorney's office more time to negotiate plea offers at preliminary hearings, she said.
This has greatly reduced the number of criminal trials in the county, Bowers added. So far this year there have been 17 criminal trials in Beaver County.
Boudewyns said Lawrence County hopes to eventually get to that point at its central court. Lawrence County has had 48 criminal trials so far this year, he said.
Matthew Mangino, Lawrence County district attorney, said he is agreeable to using central court as a way to dispose of criminal cases more quickly.
"I think where central court can be a benefit is that possibly we can have two separate tracks for our cases," he said.
Currently, there is no system to expedite those cases where pleas are reached early on, he said. It sometimes takes as long as six months to dispose of a case that was essentially settled at the preliminary hearing.
Cutting preliminary hearings down to three days each week, from the current five days, will also free up the district attorney's office to dispose of cases more quickly in common pleas court, he said.
"Is it going to cut down on trials? Ultimately we hope so because trials are essentially attacks on our office. I'm hopeful, but there are still cases where we are not going to sell the farm and we will still go to trial," Mangino added.