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Centralized arraignments pose dilemma for Harrietstown

Franklin Co. may centralize arraignments in Malone; H’town council seeks “outside the box” solution

SARANAC LAKE — Franklin County is considering a potentially massive change in how its local courts conduct arraignments.

The county Legislature is considering moving all arraignments to the county courthouse in Malone — rather than conducting them at local courts — at the request of the state’s 4th Judicial District, as the state Office of Indigent Legal Services pushes courts to ensure there’s a public defender at every arraignment.

While local leaders worry centralizing arraignments will have detrimental implications for the local police and arrested people, they are looking for “outside the box” solutions to work around this complicated dilemma, including video calling for public defenders to attend arraignments at local courts virtually.

The issue essentially comes down to staffing shortages in multiple portions of the legal system and in law enforcement industries amid a statewide effort to guarantee arrested people legal defense counsel at their first court appearance, which is approaching an April 2023 deadline. The state Office of Indigent Legal Services is pushing for courts to require that people have a public defender present at their first court appearance — also known as an arraignment. The office describes it as “a fundamental right.”

Harrietstown Judge Allan Wright said the law now requires that defendants have an attorney present at every arraignment. The counties supply public defenders for those who cannot hire their own legal representation.

In Franklin County, public defenders are on call to attend to these arraignments, but Wright said there’s not enough of them to travel around the county at all hours of the day and night.

“If there’s no lawyer available, we can’t hold the arraignment,” Wright said.

It’s his responsibility as a judge to get a public defender. Meanwhile, the accused would stay in police custody.

The state’s 4th judicial district, which encompasses a slew of North Country counties, is now asking Franklin County to centralize its arraignment locations in the Malone courthouse to keep its limited number of public defenders from needing to travel all over the county for arraignments in different towns.

If this system is approved by the county, arraignments would be held in the Malone courthouse twice a day — at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. — to make attending arraignments easier for the public defender’s office.

With this system, the 25 town and village justices in Franklin County would each take a day presiding in the court in Malone for those arraignments.

The county is asking the Harrietstown Town Council, along with other town boards, to pass resolutions supporting this.

But Harrietstown councilmembers, as well as the Saranac Lake village mayor and village police department chief, fear that having local police transporting people to arraignments 40-plus miles away would mean the village would be left unattended by police because of low staffing.

None of the councilmembers felt they should vote on the resolution at a Nov. 22 meeting. They will discuss it again at the next town meeting on Dec. 8.

Wright said he’s not totally against the idea, but he, too, has concerns about leaving vacancies in police presence while defendants are being transported.

Have badge, will travel?

Harrietstown Councilman Johnny Williams said, in theory, centralized arraignment is a “smart, forward-thinking push.” It’s good to guarantee people accused of crimes representation, he said, and with a handful of public defenders, they cannot travel easily. But when he started talking with some local experts — SLPD Chief Darin Perrotte, incoming Franklin County Sheriff Jay Cook and incoming county District Attorney Elizabeth Crawford — he heard concerns from each of them.

Saranac Lake village Mayor Jimmy Williams, Johnny’s brother, attended the town board meeting to say he is “concerned” about centralized arraignment taking Saranac Lake police officers out of the village to work as a “taxi cab.”

“I am all for sharing services when it is practical … but this idea will accomplish neither,” he said.

He read a letter on behalf of Perrotte asking the town to hold off on supporting the change.

An officer should not transport someone alone, Perrotte said in his letter, and with only two officers on duty at certain times, that would leave the village without coverage if they bring someone to an arraignment in Malone.

“If my family needs police I don’t want them to come in 40 minutes because they’re being a taxi cab,” Jimmy said.

Perrotte said his officers are already stretched thin, so he can’t ask them to work more hours, and New York State Police and Franklin County sheriff’s deputies couldn’t help much either. No law enforcement agency has the staffing available to do these transportations without depleting their department’s road coverage, Perrotte said in his letter.

Jimmy said it is “physically impossible” for village police to get people to Malone for arraignments. He said if this change is approved the village does not have the resources to make it happen.

“It’s not that we’re just a little short … we’re way short,” Jimmy said.

Johnny pointed out this could hurt the SLPD’s efforts to hire.

“Nobody wants to be an armed chauffeur,” Johnny said. “They want to be serving their community, I assume.”

This transportation would not need to happen for every arrest, just the ones where someone needs arraignment — if an orders of protection has been requested, if a charge means someone must be held in custody until they post bail or if their license was being revoked.

If someone needs arraignment, the arresting agency would be responsible for transporting the person to Malone for arraignment. If this happens after 7 p.m., that could mean the person would spend the night in a cell.

Jimmy wondered if the SLPD would then be responsible for bringing the person back to Saranac Lake after release. The person would be taken out of their community and “plopped” in Malone, he said. The Franklin County bus system has limited hours, and they would be stuck in Malone if they did not have a ride back set up.

“(4th Judicial District) Judge (Gary) Hobbs didn’t think that was such a big problem but I don’t think he recognized the distance from Saranac Lake to Malone,” Wright said.

Vote

The county is asking town boards to pass resolutions showing support for the proposed system.

“I think that the centralized arraignment part is going to happen whether we agree to it or not,” Wright said. “This may be a done deal whether Harrietstown votes for or against it.”

All councilmembers said they don’t feel comfortable supporting the change — at least not without taking more time to learn about it.

Councilman Howard Riley said he’s “totally against” the change.

Johnny said he thinks the town should vote against supporting the change, even if it does not accomplish anything.

“Even a symbolic ‘no’ vote shows that we understand our limitations, and want further discussion/options,” Johnny wrote in a text.

He said something needs to be done to make it manageable, which he said will take “outside the box thinking.”

“My personal opinion is that our time is best spent finding a solution, not trying to dissuade the 4th judicial district from implementing this,” Town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach said.

Wright said Matt Shivers, the chief administrator for 4th judicial district, claims to have all the answers to their questions. He said he’d invite Shivers to speak with the board at its next meeting on Dec. 8.

Wright said the 4th judicial district magistrate’s association, Franklin County sheriff and county legislators would need to be in support of centralized arraignment for it to pass. If centralized arraignment passes, Wright said it would take six months to take effect.

Public defender to retire

According to the state Office of Indigent Legal Services, Franklin County has three full time and two part time attorneys in the public defender’s office. But Wright said there’s really only one of them who is on-call most of the time.

Wright said Franklin County Public Defender Tom Soucia, who lives in Malone, does 90% of off-hour arraignments.

The office has a small staff, and Wright said there is a shortage of lawyers right now. With this shortage, people with law degrees can practically work anywhere, and so, do not often choose public defender work, he said.

“It is not a glamorous position,” Johnny said. “If you go to law school and you’re saddled with a whole lot of debt … probably the last thing you want to do is take a $65,000 a year job running all over the place to be a public defender. … It’s kind of a thankless position.”

Wright said Soucia takes on the off-hour night and weekend calls to represent people because he wants to keep his other attorneys happy and working at the county.

“Tom does a fantastic job,” Wright said. “He’ll come out any time, day or night, grumpy as he is, but he still shows up and he does an excellent job.”

But Soucia is set to retire in 17 months, Wright said. This information drew gasps from the town council. Wright said there is no one set to replace Soucia, at least, not at his commitment level.

Virtual court?

Councilwoman Ashley Milne asked Wright about virtual arraignments to keep people from needing to hit the road. Wright said he really doesn’t like virtual arraignments. He said virtual arraignments were done during the coronavirus pandemic, but haven’t stuck around as a common practice. He felt it doesn’t afford judges control or knowledge of what is happening beyond the camera in the arraignee’s home.

Johnny wondered about having public defenders Zoom into arraignments at local courtrooms.

“The zoom arraignment for the public defender seems like a great option to me,” Johnny wrote in a text to the Enterprise.

The digital integration during the pandemic encouraged “more efficient systems” Johnny said. He wants to use them.

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