TX - Warrant crackdown begins

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Y2K discussion group : One Thread

Whether they knew it or not, thousands of people with outstanding Kennedale warrants have been riding safe from capture for almost a year because of an investigation into records problems in the municipal court.

Now, only a few hundred of them have good reason to be glancing over their shoulders, police say.

City officials, who have combed through 8,000 warrants that were put on hold last June, have reissued 155 misdemeanor warrants this month and soon plan to activate at least 300 more. The rest of the warrants have been wiped from the books, most because they are more than 2 years old and probably contain incorrect addresses.

City Manager David Miller also said that because almost all top administrative officials have been replaced in the past 15 months -- including the city manager and police chief - it would be difficult to vouch for the validity of the warrants issued before that period.

"We would rather err in favor of the defendant than have someone get arrested who shouldn't have been arrested," Miller said.

For those receiving notices about reissued warrants, a crackdown is under way through mid-June. Police then will offer a one-month amnesty period, officials said.

Police Chief James Rutledge advises offenders not to wait until then.

"We'll be going door to door, to the workplace, wherever it is, making the arrests," Rutledge said. "It's a heck of a lot easier to come in and pay. If they can make it to the court, they won't be arrested."

Kennedale is the second Arlington-area city to make that offer. Last Friday, the Mansfield Municipal Court announced that it is offering hundreds of residents reduced fines and no jail time if they turn themselves in for outstanding warrants in June.

During Kennedale's amnesty period, warrants will not be enforced even if the offender is stopped on another violation, Rutledge said. Police have not announced the dates yet, but the crackdown is scheduled to resume in mid-July.

The warrants were placed on hold after city officials discovered that about 100 people who had paid their fines or settled their cases were still listed as fugitives, leading to concerns that city employees at the time might have stolen the money. Those suspected improprieties are part of an investigation into court records and missing items from the police property room, inquiries that began in the spring of 2002 and have since been turned over to the Tarrant County district attorney's office and the FBI.

The investigation, which began after top city administration, police and fire officials left or were fired, is ongoing, officials said.

Financial pressures are partly fueling the warrants crackdown. Recently, the municipal court was projected to lose about $230,000 in revenue this fiscal year because fines haven't been paid and because of case dismissals and reduced fines, Miller said.

Although Miller said he expects the collection effort to make up most of that shortfall by the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, he ordered department heads to cut 5 percent from their budgets. That move saved $180,000, and a proposal to transfer a utility clerk's salary into the utility fund budget will save another $40,000, Miller said.

"We made sufficient enough cuts in the budget to absorb any shortfall that may occur," he said. "We'll still come out within budget."

Recently, Miller put City Judge Bill Lane in direct charge of the court, taking over day-to-day duties of Associate City Judge Teresa Evans, to help conclude the evaluation of the warrants and to preside over the increase in cases expected from the crackdown. Because Lane, who is municipal judge in Mansfield and several other cities, agreed to take over at a reduced stipend, the city also will be saving about $1,000 a month in judge pay, Miller said.

"This was something where they needed someone with his experience," Evans said of Lane. "What we've done for the past year is make sure the warrants were error-free."

One of the recent problems was a malfunction in the court's outdated computer software, Lane said. The computer, which generates a sequence of written notices and warnings for offenders to pay their fines, had stopped taking the final step of issuing warrants.

"We had to audit everything. I'm as confident as I can be that all these we have issued now are good warrants," Lane said. "We want people to understand that they need to take care of business."

Star Telegram

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2003


Moderation questions? read the FAQ