|
New County Victimm-Witness Office |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 |
|
The Amador County Board of Supervisors approved placing a modular office
for the county’s Victim-Witness Program in the parking lot of the new
courthouse on Argonaut Lane.
Currently, the Victim-Witness office is located on Summit Street across from the old
courthouse. But much of Victim-Witness activity is conducted during trials or
hearings at the courthouse and the downtown office is now too far away to
adequately serve victims, witnesses or the District Attorney’s staff, says D.A.
Todd Riebe. Riebe says that last year his office assisted 589 victims and
witnesses. DA staff and law enforcement officers are in and out of the Victim
Witness office as well. When staff need to conference with victims or witnesses
during a trial, they often have to meet in hallways or other public spaces, in
full view of the perpetrator and in earshot of the opposing attorneys.
The county has been criticized for not including
a victim-witness office in the newly remodeled courthouse building but county
CAO Terri Daly emphasized that there was no oversight – placing the county’s
Victim-Witness office inside what is to become the state’s courthouse would
complicate and delay the legal transfer of the courthouse from county ownership
to the courts.
The Supervisors were anxious to get the job done as soon as
possible and approved the project and asked county counsel Martha Shaver to
draft an appropriate agreement with the courts to occupy the space in the
parking lot. GSA director Jon Hopkins said it would take 60 – 90 days to order
the modular office and get it installed. Hopkins
said that the judges are in favor of moving the Victim Witness office to the
modular office. The court will charge what Daly called “a minimal amount of
rent” for the space.
|
