Unpaid fines fuel Marksville City Court funding crisis

    If every outstanding bench warrant were paid, Ward 2/Marksville City Court would receive at least $300,000 in fines and court costs, the court’s computer records indicate. 

    City Court Administrator Monique Sprinkle said the court’s records show there are 1,337 outstanding traffic and misdemeanor criminal warrants. That dates back only to 2012, when the court implemented a computerized record system.

    “There could be outstanding warrants dating back 20 years,” she added.

    There is no report showing the actual amount owed in fines, court fees and bench warrant fees for those warrants. However, if all 1,337 were for seat belt violations -- one of the the least expensive tickets handled in the court -- the amount owed would be $294,140. That would be a $25 fine, $145 in court costs and a $50 bench warrant fee added to the fine.

   She estimated the average offense costs the perpetrator $200 in fines and court costs. Using that figure, and adding the $50 bench warrant fee, the total value of the outstanding warrants would be $334,250

    Sprinkle said approximately half of the cases that come before the court end in a bench warrant being issued. She estimated about half of those are usually resolved by the defendant paying the fine and costs, opting to serve time in jail instead of paying the fine or providing evidence that convinces the judge to withdraw the warrant and reschedule the case for hearing.

    A review of the computer records found Sprinkle’s “ballpark estimate” to be fairly accurate.

 

   The records show there were 6,028 cases in the criminal/traffic court since 2012. Half of that would be about 3,000 bench warrants and half of the warrants would be about 1,500 still outstanding.

   Sprinkle said defendants charged with a serious offense with misdemeanor tickets attached may be serving time in jail when their City Court date comes up. Those cases are often closed by giving the defendants “credit for time served” while they were serving time for the more serious offense.

   Some individuals booked into the parish jail are released and given a slip of paper indicating a court date. Sprinkle said that court date is not the City Court date that the police officer writes on the ticket. Defendants may show up at 12th Judicial District Court on the date given to them by APSO, only to find that the City Court charges are not part of their hearing and that they missed their court date and now have a bench warrant against them.

    She said those warrants are usually withdrawn and the case rescheduled.

 

   A spot check of three court sessions over the past six months found no pattern of cases being dismissed -- as has been alleged by some in the ongoing feud between City Court and City Hall.

    However, the limited survey did confirm the problem with people not showing up for court.

   There were 199 cases in which action was taken other than setting a future court date. Of the 199, 70 fines were levied and either paid or set up on a payment plan. There were eight sentenced to “time served” in lieu of paying a fine.

   There were 19 tickets dismissed -- usually minor infractions in cases with more major charges, such as DWI, in which the defendant paid a substantial fine. There were six tickets reduced to a lesser charge with fines paid. 

    There were 14 in which the defendant was found not guilty and five in which the court found the offense was a felony and transferred the case to 12th Judicial District Court.

   Almost half of the cases called up on the docket -- 93 of 199 -- resulted in bench warrants for defendants who failed to appear in court to either pay their fine or present their defense against the charges.

The court adds $50 to the ticket fine if it has to issue a bench warrant. 

Adding all of those together gets a total of 205 actions because the six reduced charges are counted twice -- as reduced tickets and as fines paid.

   It was the need to try to make wrongdoers pay their fines and show up for court that prompted the hiring of part-time deputy marshals. In August, the part-time deputies were empowered to write traffic tickets in addition to serving warrants.

 

   In the past, the City Court warrants were served by Marksville City Police inside the city limits and by a “warrant officer”  in the unincorporated areas of Ward 2. The cost for that was paid out of a portion of the court costs and was sent to the city to pay the off-duty officers.

    Earlier this year, the city ended the “off-duty police” warrant program.

   As both the amount of court costs in that account and the number of unserved warrants increased, City Marshal Floyd Voinche hired three POST-certified enforcement officers to work part-time serving warrants, using the court costs that had gone to the city for its off-duty program.

    Voinche currently finds himself in that position again. Two of his part-time deputies -- Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. -- are facing murder and attempted murder charges for the Nov. 3 shooting following a traffic stop on Martin Luther King Drive. The third part-time marshal, Jason Brouillette, has been cleared in that case but has not come back to work for the City Marshal’s Office.

    “Right now, we have no cars for the warrant program,” Voinche said. Both patrol cars are currently parked while State Police continues its investigation into the Nov. 3 shooting.

 

    Court costs range from $145 for a non-moving traffic violation, such as an expired license plate, to $352.50 for conviction of a first or second DWI.

    The Ward/City Court keeps $22 to pay for its costs. The remainder of the court costs are allocated for several different purposes

   Others receiving part of the court costs include a judicial administration fee to the state ($3), Law Officer Training ($2) to the city, Police Off-Duty Witness fund ($20), Marshal Fund ($10), Indigent Defender Board ($45), Central Louisiana Juvenile Detention Facility ($7.50), District Attorney’s Office ($20), Marksville Police Department Fund ($15), Louisiana Judicial College (50 cents).

    Those costs are attached to all offenses.

    Moving traffic violations also pay a $10 fee that goes to support the North Louisiana Criminalistics Lab, for a total court cost of $155.

   Criminal cases also carry fees to La. Commission on Law Enforcement crime victims fund ($7.50), but do not pay the 50-cent fee to the Judicial College, for a total court cost of $162.

   Misdemeanor drug offenses carry a $50 fee to the Crime Lab instead of $10 and $50 to La. Commission on Law Enforcement Drug Education & Treatment fund, but also do not pay the 50 cents to the Judicial College, for a total court cost of $252.

DWI convictions also include a $75 fee for breathalyzers and $25 to the Louisiana Traumatic Head & Spinal Cord Injury Fund, and the 50-cent Judicial College fee, for a total court cost of $352.50.