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<p>Luzerne County criminal cases soon will be heard by district judges at two central courts instead of 16 magisterial offices scattered throughout the county.</p><p>Court officials decided to retool and bring back central court as part of their push to process criminal cases faster and more efficiently. Taxpayers must foot the bill for offenders lodged in the county prison awaiting adjudication.</p><p>&#8220;The savings that this will produce will outweigh any costs, and it&#8217;s the right thing to do because people who are arrested deserve a speedy trial,&#8221; said county Court of Common Pleas President Judge Richard Hughes.</p><p>The main problem with the current set-up: the county District Attorney&#8217;s Office doesn&#8217;t have the resources to send an assistant district attorney to most magisterial level court proceedings because there are too many all over the place, judges said.</p><p>As a result, assistant district attorneys only appear at magisterial proceedings when requested by police, usually in high-level cases, said county Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Vough, who oversees the county criminal court division.</p><p>Centralizing these cases at only two locations &#8212; the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre and one of the Hazleton area magisterial offices &#8212; will allow an assistant district attorney to attend all proceedings, said Hughes and Vough.</p><p>Why is this important? An assistant district attorney has the power to negotiate plea agreements, weigh in on bail recommendations and determine if the initial evidence supports the charges that have been filed.</p><p>&#8220;The resolution of cases will begin right there. There are certain cases that might get resolved that day and be done,&#8221; Hughes said.</p><p>Vough said he and other county judges in the criminal division end up with many cases that should have been resolved at the magisterial level.</p><p>&#8220;In my opinion, the best benefit of central court is that it gets the lawyers for defendants and prosecutors together with the witnesses and victims to look at the validity of a case and see if it can be resolved very early in the process,&#8221; Vough said.</p><p>The corraling of criminal cases at two spots also will allow the constant presence of an assistant public defender so income-eligible defendants can apply for representation on the spot. Vough said defendants who failed to seek a public defender regularly appear in court.</p><p><strong>Fiscal decision</p><p>Reactivation of central court was recommended in the county&#8217;s newly released five-year financial recovery plan completed by Harrisburg-based Public Financial Management, which pointed to the county&#8217;s low ranking in processing and disposing of criminal cases.</p><p>In 2013, Luzerne County closed out 63 percent of its criminal cases, which was the lowest percentage among similarly-sized, third-class counties. Dauphin County also resolved 63 percent of cases that year, but the percentage ranged from 64 to 77 for the 10 remaining third-class counties, the plan said.</p><p>From 2008 to 2013, Luzerne County ranked in the bottom third of third-class counties in closing out available criminal cases, the recovery plan said.</p><p>A reduction of 26 inmates lingering in the prison awaiting trial would save the county about $689,000 annually because the daily cost per inmate is estimated at $72.60, the plan said.</p><p>More recent statistics indicate the court is making headway closing out criminal cases, Hughes said.</p><p>As of Nov. 1 this year, 3,715 new criminal cases were filed in the county. The county disposed of 3,832 cases, including 54 involving more time-consuming jury trials.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re disposing of more cases than we&#8217;re bringing in. That&#8217;s the first time in a long time that&#8217;s happened. We&#8217;ve greatly improved,&#8221; Vough said.</p><p>The judges credit the first phase of the case acceleration plan implemented a year ago.</p><p>Vough and four of his judicial colleagues &#8212; Tina Polachek Gartley, Joseph Sklarosky Jr., David Lupas and Fred A. Pierantoni III &#8212; were assigned to primarily handle criminal cases in geographic zones, simplifying scheduling and enhancing oversight. The schedule also was revamped with deadlines forcing attorneys to meet and provide status reports on pending cases.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a big difference from before, where pretrial conferences often were a waste of time and accomplished nothing,&#8221; Vough said.</p><p><strong> Cost factors</p><p>Court officials are still working out the cost of the new central court, which is targeted to begin in March, Hughes said.</p><p>There will be no rental expense because it will be housed in the courthouse and the current Hazleton or Hazle Township magisterial offices, Hughes said. The state typically funds computer systems, and court officials plan to rely primarily on existing staff, he said.</p><p>The county&#8217;s original central court opened in rented space at the Thomas C. Thomas building in 2006 and covered criminal cases throughout the county. It was scaled back to cover only Wilkes-Barre magisterial cases in 2009, largely due to complaints that municipal police were wasting too much time and money sitting around in central court awaiting proceedings.</p><p>Court officials pulled the plug on the program in 2012, saving about $150,000 on rent and a central court administrator position.</p><p>The restructured central court will put less burden on police because they won&#8217;t be required to appear for a preliminary hearing unless it&#8217;s verified a defendant is not waiving his or her right to that hearing, Hughes said. Strict scheduling also will prevent police officers from wasting hours sitting through a &#8220;cattle call&#8221; of unrelated cases, he said.</p><p>&#8220;Often times hearings are waived, and if they are, there&#8217;s no point in the police officer coming in,&#8221; Hughes said.</p><p>Central court also will reduce time and money municipalities must invest transporting prisoners, he said. Police &#8212; not county sheriffs &#8212; must pick up inmates for preliminary hearings and then take them back to the prison in Wilkes-Barre. The prison is near the courthouse, which means police in outlying parts of the county won&#8217;t be forced to make two trips back and forth to their local magisterial offices transporting offenders, he said.</p><p>Both Hazleton area magisterial offices are equipped for videoconferencing with the prison to reduce transports there.</p><p>Court officials have been working with police representatives to schedule a meeting to discuss the changes, Hughes said.</p><p><strong>Rotating schedules</strong></p><p>The county&#8217;s 16 district judges will preside over one of the two central court on rotating schedules. District judges will continue to handle civil and traffic cases at their own magisterial offices.</p><p>Vough said the central court scheduling may be tweaked to allow certain types of cases on specific days, such as DUIs. Of the 3,715 criminal cases filed this year to date, 1,060 were DUIs, he said.</p><p>Centralized processing of cases and the presence of assistant district attorneys also should lead to more uniformity in bail amounts for various offenses, which may further reduce prison lodging, Hughes said.</p><p>Luzerne is the only third-class county without a central court, Vough said.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been a proponent of central court for years and was a little upset when it disbanded. It&#8217;s how it is done everywhere else,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Hughes </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_hughes.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hughes </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_vough.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption">Vough </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_vough.jpeg</photo1><caption1>Vough </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County reactivating central court for criminal cases