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Friday, December 22, 2006

Courts - Yet more on: Kentucky Supreme Court carries out records purge

Updating this ILB entry from Dec. 21st about the mass destruction of misdemeanor records in Kentucky's Jefferson County last month, carrried out by Kentucky the Administrative Office of the Courts, Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal reports today:

Kentucky court officials violated their own rules when they seized and destroyed misdemeanor records in Jefferson County last month, employees of the Jefferson circuit clerk's office said yesterday.

State rules allow records to be destroyed only if circuit court clerks request it, Chief Deputy Clerk Russ Salsman told a panel appointed to investigate the purge.

But the Jefferson County circuit court clerk's office never made such a request before the Administrative Office of the Courts removed and shredded the county's microfilm records, Salsman said.

"They got it backwards," said Court of Appeals Judge Tom Wine, who was appointed by state Chief Justice Joseph Lambert to head a five-member committee charged with investigating what occurred.

Leigh Anne Hiatt, the AOC's spokeswoman, said it wouldn't comment until the investigation is complete and the panel issues its report, which she said would be in three or four weeks.

Local prosecutors and judges have complained that the purge of records dating before 2001 endangered the public and undercut the prosecution of spouse abusers and other offenders.

Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel has said prosecutors lost a key tool used in sentencing and bond hearings, as well as in trials, to show that an offender has a pattern of misconduct.

And County Attorney Irv Maze has said that day-care and elder-care agencies no longer would be able to check the full misdemeanor conviction background of job applicants.

Lambert acknowledged this week that there may have been "significant mistakes made" when the AOC hauled away the microfilm and microfiche records in Jefferson County and had them destroyed.

E-mails presented to the panel yesterday show that the AOC ignored at least three written pleas to hold off on the purge. One was from the state Office of Probation and Parole, which has used misdemeanor conviction records in presentencing reports to help judges determine whether offenders should be granted probation.

In an e-mail Nov. 28 -- the day before the records were taken -- interim Circuit Court Clerk Michael Losavio warned that "innocent folks" would be unable to prove that charges had been dropped, while "guilty folks" would "no longer have to face the sentencing consequences of prior misdemeanors."

The AOC's general manager of court services, John Dobson, responded later the same day that the purge could not be avoided because the state court records-retention policy required it.

"The AOC, serving as an administrative arm to the Supreme Court, is simply trying to assist in carrying out the regulations set forth by the chief justice," Dobson said.

Appearing before Wine's committee, however, Diane Hawkins, archive manager for the clerk's office, said the AOC broke another rule by seizing microfiche copies of judge's dockets without auditing them first.

Hawkins, whose bosses earlier dubbed her "Joan of Archives" for trying to save the records, said those audits are required to ensure that records slated for destruction don't include convictions for crimes that can be enhanced if defendants are charged again with the same offense.

Salsman also disclosed that AOC removed another set of records -- an electronic file of district court cases from 1987 to 1998 -- even though the circuit court clerk's office never requested that it be purged. He said AOC has not responded to e-mails about the disappearance of the Jefferson District Court Information System, as the file was known.

Wine ordered that several AOC employees -- including Ed Crockett, general manager of pretrial services -- appear to testify before the panel. He also set three days for hearings, the first of which was tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.

He said AOC officials were not invited to serve on the committee because their conduct is the subject of the probe.

Wine said the panel, which includes Circuit Judge Steve Mershon and District Judge Audra Eckerle as well as representatives of the public defender's and circuit court clerk's offices, will explore whether the AOC records policy was followed and, if it was, whether it should be changed.

Wine told reporters afterward that he doesn't think the records can be reconstructed, although he said the AOC has agreed not to purge any more records pending the outcome of the investigation.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 22, 2006 09:13 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts