More crime leads to crowded court docket

People dodge each other walking up the stairs to the courtrooms at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse and wait their turn to get a closer look at papers covering the bulletin board outside. They talk quietly in clusters in the hallway; the lucky ones have a place to sit.

But there's no major event, no high-profile trial underway. It's just Monday.

Law day.

Before the lawyers and judge go home, they will address more than 100 cases. That caseload doesn't appear to be letting up, and the consensus among those working those long dockets is they spring mainly from one factor: more crime.

Assistant Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Angel Woodruff said since she started at the prosecutor's office nearly 18 years ago, the types and volume of crimes being prosecuted have changed.

"I would say within the last probably four years is when we've seen a marked increase," Woodruff said. "There's been much more violent crime, gun crime. And, of course, those cases require a lot more time and attention to detail. ... It really is a significant number of cases that we have."

Scheduling

The timing of cases making their way through the courts seems to matter more than the number itself.

Scheduling dockets for law days -- which involve quick hearings and announcements on cases -- in Cape Girardeau County, part of the 32nd Judicial Circuit, falls to the circuit clerk's office, which takes a number of factors into consideration.

"It depends on, first of all, what kind of case it is," Cape Girardeau Circuit Clerk Patti Wibbenmeyer said. "Different kinds of cases are held on different days. And then it depends on which judge it is, because different judges have different days."

Wibbenmeyer said judges Benjamin Lewis and Michael Gardner hear different types of cases on alternating weeks. For example, one hears criminal cases the first and third Monday of the month, and civil cases the second and fourth, and vice versa.

"The judges have determined that the law days are going to be on Mondays so that they have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to schedule jury trials and bench trials," Wibbenmeyer said. The clerk's office only handles docket scheduling; the judges schedule their own jury trials and bench trials, Wibbenmeyer said.

"Judge Lewis is so booked already for 2016 for jury trials," Wibbenmeyer said. "... And most of them won't go, but you don't know that. So the dates that those get picked is just the judges' and the attorneys' availability."

Because of various circumstances, trials often are rescheduled.

"If the jury trial goes off (the docket), it goes back on a law day to get rescheduled," Wibbenmeyer said. "All cases are kept on a calendar. That's how they don't fall through the cracks."

Criminal cases are on the first available law day after a charge is filed, Wibbenmeyer said.

"Even if it happens over the weekend, they've got it in court Monday morning," she said. "And then if it gets bound over to the felony side, they're going to get it on their first docket.

"So criminal cases get filed by the prosecutor, we get them into court on the very next docket. And then it depends on when the judge tells us to pass them to," Wibbenmeyer said. "... And so we just live with it. Whatever he passed it to, we schedule 'X' number of cases per half-hour, and we go until we're done. We don't worry about how many cases, really, there are. We just put them on there. If the judge says they're going on that day, we put them on."

On a recent law day, Woodruff handled 115 cases before Judge Lewis.

"I handle the Division II docket. ... All 115 cases aren't mine specifically," but rather the docket includes cases for the entire office, Woodruff said.

"Every single prosecutor has some cases on the docket, but it's my docket, so I handle all of them that day," Woodruff said. "Now, they write their plea offers on the file, they try to give me a heads-up about different issues that might come up, but a lot of it you just do on the fly."

Missouri's 32nd Judicial Circuit consists of Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties. Of the 4,579 criminal cases filed in the circuit in fiscal 2015, 3,088 were filed in Cape Girardeau County, according to the circuit's annual report. Those numbers do not include municipal cases such has traffic violations.

"We've had those high numbers before, and we have them regularly now," Woodruff said.

Indeed, more cases were filed in 2015 than in 2014.

The circuit's 2014 annual report indicates 4,223 criminal cases, not including municipal cases, were filed in the circuit during the fiscal year. Of those, 2,893 were filed in Cape Girardeau County.

The court employees try to find a balance by leaving a little early or coming in later another day if they are able. But, Woodruff said, finding a balance can be difficult.

"I know that when I have a docket, I'm going to be locked into that chair from the time we start until well after the time that the office closes," Woodruff said. "When I come back downstairs, of course, everyone's gone. ... You try to balance it out."

Woodruff's solution to the crowded dockets: less crime.

"But since we can't really do anything to prevent that ... even dockets."

Woodruff said ideally the docket scheduling is spaced "so that one docket doesn't have only 60 while the other has 115."

Wibbenmeyer said the attempt has been made to avoid the 115-case days.

"Actually, it would have been more, but ... about a week before that, we saw what the calendar was, and Judge Lewis said that Judge Gardner had said he'd be willing to take some, because for whatever reason Lewis had so many more cases," Wibbenmeyer said. "So they took 16 or 17 of those cases and passed them to the other division.

"Well, by the end of the week, we had another 13 or 14 filed, and we were back up to where we were to begin with, or we'd have been there later."

Bright spot

Wibbenmeyer says the circuit is seeing less of one type of case in particular.

"The adult abuse is down. We don't know why. But the adult abuse cases have gone down considerably," she said.

She said she thinks the reason may be partly from a law that was passed that makes those types of cases harder for the parties involved to drop.

"They used to be able to just come in and drop an adult abuse, and now it still has to go to court and the judge determine if he's going to drop it or not," Wibbenmeyer said.

"I think the word is out that maybe they need to be serious about it if they're going to come in. And I think the purpose of that is maybe to give them time to think, or in case someone was maybe making them come in and drop it, now they have to go to court and tell the judge maybe what's changed that they're not scared anymore. And sometimes the judge just really thinks that there's an issue" and decides the case will move forward.

Civil cases are on a two-month review, Wibbenmeyer said. Divorces must be on file at least 30 days before they can go through.

"It really depends on who the judge is and what kind of case it is how fast it gets moved," Wibbenmeyer said. "With these dockets, we do move the cases really quick in Cape County."

She said the 32nd Circuit has won the O'Toole Award for meeting time standards nearly every year.

Woodruff said the county's heavy caseload was the main motivating factor in adding another prosecutor recently.

"We hadn't actually added a new position since mine," Woodruff said. "When I started almost 18 years ago, mine was a brand-new position, for a criminal prosecutor."

She said they have added a nonsupport position since then, "but that's for the entire judicial circuit, not just Cape County. ... And certainly within that time, we have more crime and so we want to make sure we're giving the attention to the cases that they need. I mean, we represent the community, and we always want to do a good job for them."

kwebster@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3646

Pertinent address:

100 Court St., Cape Girardeau, MO

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Criminal filings

Below are the criminal filings in each county in Missouri*'s 32nd Circuit by fiscal year. The totals do not include municipal filings such as traffic offenses.

2014 2015

Felony

Bollinger 115 92

Cape Girardeau 622 767

Perry 161 196

Circuit total 898 1,055

Associate felony

Bollinger 147 159

Cape Girardeau 863 1,024

Perry 178 262

Circuit total 1,188 1,445

Misdemeanors

Bollinger 272 265

Cape Girardeau 1,408 1,297

Perry 457 517

Circuit total 2,137 2,079

Total 4,223 4,579

Source: courts.mo.gov