Court Costs

Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson can drop his $35 million libel suit against former Rep. Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey Jr. of California, but only if Robertson agrees to pay court costs, a federal judge ruled yesterday. District Judge Joyce Hens Green ruled that Robertson must pay his court costs - and McCloskey's - if he wants to drop the suit because McCloskey "is, for this determination . . . a prevailing party. " Attorneys for McCloskey, a Republican who had asserted that Robertson avoided combat duty in the Korean War, estimated that the court costs could run between $10,000 and $20,000, which would include the expense of taking depositions from witnesses.

Frustrated by stalling on the part of the Casey administration and the legislature, Allegheny County has asked the state Supreme Court to force the state to comply with a 1987 order requiring the state to pay for local court costs throughout Pennsylvania. Filed last week, Allegheny County's petition complains that "various counties . . . have had no success in meeting with the General Assembly concerning the enactment of appropriate legislation for funding the courts. " The Casey administration and legislative leaders have balked at the 1987 order, contending it was unclear on numerous points, including what should actually be funded by the state.

Camden High School will soon be getting a bill "in excess of $20,000" to cover the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association's expenses in defending itself in the school's unsuccessful attempt to overturn a ban from the state boys' basketball tournament. The Camden boys' basketball team was barred from this year's Group 4 tournament by the NJSIAA because of a fight among spectators at a tournament game at Monmouth College last March. Camden's school board challenged the decision, appealing first to John Ellis, the state commissioner of education, and later to the Appellate Division of State Superior Court and the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Mayor Goode yesterday released a proposal for more than $100 million in budget changes that could ignite a confrontation with City Council members over spending priorities. The changes, listed in what is called a transfer ordinance, are scheduled for a hearing Tuesday by Council's Appropriations Committee. Committee Chairman John F. Street has said he expects the hearing to spill into Wednesday. More than half of the adjustment Goode offered was forced by the state Supreme Court, which ruled Thursday that the city must pay $53 million in local court costs that Council members tried to force on the state this year.

Legislative leaders are making a last-ditch effort to dodge a momentous state Supreme Court order that the state pay county court costs, a bill that could reach $1 billion yearly. In a petition, House Speaker Matthew J. Ryan and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer asked the state's highest court to vacate its 5-2 decision, handed down late last month, and hear the case anew. Those involved in the petition, announced yesterday, acknowledged that persuading the court to reopen the case is an uphill endeavor, since the court rarely reconsiders cases and reverses itself even less often.

A Bucks County deputy sheriff was charged yesterday with embezzling $1,738 from overdue court costs he collected in the course of his duties. Thomas J. Boose of the 3000 block of Oxford Valley Road in Bristol, was charged with four counts of theft, and one count each of receiving stolen property, obstructing justice and misapplication of entrusted government property. He was arraigned yesterday at District Justice Oliver A. Groman's court in Warrington and released on his own recognizance.

Mayor Rendell yesterday blasted the state board that oversees city finances for criticizing his attempt to get the state to pick up the tab for $100 million in local court costs as the Supreme Court ordered 12 years ago. But the mayor also hinted that the governor and state legislators may be willing to compromise by increasing the amount of money coming to the city. Under a Supreme Court plan, the city could see a $1.2 million reduction in court expenditures in the next fiscal year.

State Sen. Raymond J. Zane called upon Gloucester County Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney yesterday to account for $10 million in extra costs for the county's court expansion. Zane, a Republican, also accused Sweeney, his Democratic opponent in the Third District Senate race, of having accepted more than $35,000 in campaign contributions from the companies involved in the project. The expansion's first phase, which includes a parking lot and new family court facilities along Broad Street in Woodbury, was estimated at $6.1 million in a 1999 county master plan.

Ten of the young people charged with trespassing for attending a July beer bash at which revelers trashed a $1 million luxury home in Solebury, Bucks County, pleaded guilty yesterday and were fined $50 to $100 each plus court costs. They could have faced fines of up to $300 each and prison terms of up to 90 days. District Justice Robert A. Schnell's decision to hand down lighter punishments was immediately criticized by Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein. Rubenstein had vowed to push for tough sanctions in the case.

A long-awaited Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision expected to force the state to pay many millions in county court costs will have to be waited for a bit longer as Justice Ronald Castille reviews the last opinion filed in the case, according to court sources. The justices took a preliminary vote in the case a few months ago, with Castille writing the dissenting opinion in what is expected to be a 5-2 decision. Justice John P. Flaherty wrote the majority opinion. But a delay followed in issuing a formal opinion, which is eagerly awaited by government officials struggling with a tight fiscal 1997 budget, when Justice Sandra Schultz Newman decided to write her own opinion in the case.

The case for sparing the life of condemned killer Terrance Williams has never been more compelling than now, just days away from his scheduled appointment with Pennsylvania's executioner. Working along two tracks, Gov. Corbett and the courts still have a chance to head off an irreversible injustice - and what would be the state's first execution in a half-century of someone who had not given up on appealing his death sentence. The first opportunity comes Thursday, when the state Board of Probation and Parole is set to review its rejection of Williams' clemency bid. New evidence that weighs heavily in Williams' favor should be more than enough to convince two board holdouts to recommend commutation by Corbett to a life sentence.

PHILADELPHIA's court system, the First Judicial District, is enacting reforms to make it easier for people to challenge court debts they believe are inaccurate. Legal advocates say the changes, scheduled to take effect in about six weeks, will give poor people a better chance at fighting debts. Last year, court officials announced plans to crack down on debtors, who owed the district a combined total of about $1.5 billion in forfeited bail, restitution and other court costs.

NOT EVERYONE'S debts get wiped from the books. In fact, legal advocates say, it doesn't happen for most people who are wrongly targeted for payment of delinquent court costs. A typical story, they say, would be like that of George James. James, 60, a truck driver from Northeast Philly, says he recently found out he owed more than $900 for various court costs from the 1990s. But the court's records are wrong, he says, because his wages were garnished for a year to pay the debts.

EVELYN PINER is stuck in a Catch-22. Last year, she got a letter from the First Judicial District, Philadelphia's court system, saying she owed $900 in forfeited bail for skipping a court hearing in early 1990. It was the first she'd heard of the debt, she says. Plus, it didn't make sense: She couldn't have owed money, she says, because she was in prison at the time of the hearing. The feisty Piner, 53, looked for prison records to prove it - but found that all the prison system's documents prior to 1991 had been destroyed by water damage.

Watch out! If you've failed to pay the Philadelphia courts bail money or restitution, you have until Monday to work out a payment plan before officials start taking more drastic measures. Your property could be seized. Your wages garnished. You could face further financial penalties. The First Judicial District, which is facing $1.5 billion in unpaid bail, restitution and other court costs, announced early last month that it was giving those who owed money a two-month, no-penalty period until Feb. 28, after which more serious action could be taken.

Philadelphia prosecutors on Tuesday began looking for small-time marijuana possession cases to downgrade to summary offenses, in an effort to reduce court costs, officials said. Possession cases reaching the preliminary arraignment stage may be diverted from misdemeanor charges. People caught with 30 grams (a little more than an ounce) or less will still be arrested, but they could wind up taking a class, paying a $200 fine, and having their record expunged. The new leniency is expected to save taxpayer money that is spent on public defenders, police testimony, and documentation.

NEARLY 50 years ago, the Supreme Court decided that poor people charged with a crime are entitled to legal presentation, paid for by the state. As our state Legislature continues its destruction path through the budget process, this is a right that is now in jeopardy in Philadelphia. That's because the court-appointed attorneys that represent the city's poorest clients in criminal and family courts are on the "don't-pay" list of vendors created by the city due to the state budget stalemate.

Two women who lied to a grand jury investigating the case of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who died of starvation inside her mother's filthy West Philadelphia apartment, were sentenced yesterday to probation and community service. Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner sentenced Diamond Brantley, 22, to two years' probation, 75 hours of community service, and court costs. He sentenced Marie Moses, 36, to three years' probation, 100 hours of community service, and court costs.

ON WEDNESDAY, City Council held hearings on the $99 million budget for the First Judicial District, which includes the Court of Common Pleas, Municipal Court, and Traffic Court. Council members asked some tough questions about the soaring prison population and alternatives to incarceration. It was heartening to see Council raise important issues, but disturbing to hear the same old answers from the officials who run our courts. Perhaps the most disturbing moment came when Councilman Wilson Goode asked Court Administrator David Lawrence what accounted for the high number of people behind bars.

The Daily News' "Tainted Justice" series has prompted community leaders to question the wisdom of using an elite drug-enforcement unit to bust small stores for selling drug paraphernalia. City Council Member Maria Quinones-Sanchez said the city should develop a fairer, more productive and less costly method of enforcement. "We have to do better outreach, so when it happens, people are not caught off guard," she said. "If they don't comply, then there's enforcement. " Some store owners and community leaders say enforcement should be handled by inspectors from the Department of License and Inspections who could educate store owners, write citations and levy fines.