In days gone by, people got arrested at 2 a.m., drunk or otherwise, stumbled into a courtroom for an arraignment, and faced a judge - alone. Not so in 2018 in New York State. People in handcuffs can now have a Public Defender by their side 24/7 when they stand in front of the judge. Cuba Police Chief Dustin Burch made that clear in a press release he sent out this morning.
When asked if the new policy impacted the Wellsville police department, Chief Timothy O'Grady replied, immediately, "yes." O'Grady said there are several categories of crimes that require an immediate arraignment, to include felonies, domestic crimes and when defendants are not from the local area. So far, this year, the chief said they have only had one evening arraignment in which the on-call Public Defender was brought in. O'Grady said his only concern was about the impact on the budget, an issue he recently conveyed to the village board. O'Grady said he has altered policies and said the department is issuing more and more court appearance tickets, to prevent the need for a court arraignment (a court appearance ticket means you promise to return to court on a given day). "I'll continue to monitor the fiscal impact, " O'Grady said.
Meanwhile, Allegany County Public Defender Barbara Kelley issued this statement to Wellsville Regional News:
As you know the Allegany County Public Defender’s Office received a $645,000 grant to be paid from NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services over 3 years. The purpose of the grant is to bring Allegany County into compliance with the requirement to have counsel present at criminal arraignments when a defendant’s liberty interests are at stake. We hired an attorney under this grant and he began work January 2nd. It is our goal to have an attorney on-call 24/7 who can appear at arraignment and advocate on behalf of the defendant. Too often, defendants are incarcerated pre-trial for reasons unrelated to the likelihood that they will return to court as directed. We seek to prevent unreasonable bail from being set. We are also looking to reduce the incarceration of people because of their inability to pay financial penalties. The disproportionate impact of these policies on the poor is obvious. We are hopeful that as we implement our program and provide the additional services it will benefit the community as a whole; by making the process more fair, just and lawful.
