County bar backs new judge request

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County Bar Association members voted Monday to support an attempt to get another circuit court judge for the 4th Judicial District, which includes Washington and Madison counties.

“The growing population, increasing number of juveniles cited or arrested to appear in juvenile court and the increasing number of juvenile court cases filed in Madison and Washington counties clearly support an additional judge to handle juvenile cases,” Stacey Zimmerman, administrative judge for the district said in a letter to the association.

If approved by the state legislature, a new judgeship would bring to eight the number in the judicial district. A judge was last added in 2010 and Joanna Taylor was elected to the position. Taylor hears criminal, civil and domestic relations cases.

Zimmerman handles virtually all juvenile cases in Washington and Madison counties, including delinquency, dependent-neglect and Family in Need of Services. She estimates spending 45-60 hours a week in court hearing cases. As of Dec. 31, there were about 2,100 active juvenile court cases, including new ones filed and those open from previous years.

“From my perspective, I need some help in juvenile court. I’m setting cases at 7 in the morning and I’m going ’til 8 at night,” Zimmerman said Monday. “It’s just gotten to the point where we need someone to take some of the juvenile load. We’ve got kids and we’ve got families and we really need to be able to give the time to the cases.”

Kent McLemore, a Fayetteville lawyer who has handled delinquency cases for about 25 years, said the juvenile court docket is heavily overloaded and the facility is dangerously inadequate.

“As Washington County’s population continues to grow, so does the number of serious cases involving children. The caseload is now unsustainable for one judge,” McLemore wrote in a letter to judges. “The citizens of Washington County deserve a juvenile court with the space and time to make sound, well-considered decisions in these most difficult of cases.”

The judicial district was third in the state in the number of cases filed per judge last year and second in 2016.

Woody Bassett, another Fayetteville lawyer, said the numbers of cases and the region’s rapid population growth tell him it’s about time to take action.

“I think Washington County could use a new judge,” Bassett said.

Matt Durrett, 4th District prosecutor, said his office is handling about 4,000 new felony criminal filings this year.

“I think we need a lot more of everything, quite frankly,” Durrett said. “I think we need more prosecutors, more public defenders. We need a lot of stuff and the question is going to be whether or not there’s funding, that’s always the issue.”

The procedure involves submitting a written proposal, including population statistics, case loads of judges, and letters of support, to the Judicial Resources Assessment Committee, which is made up of state judges, by the end of July, according to Zimmerman. That committee makes a decision in October and if it agrees makes a recommendation for the Legislature to consider in 2019.

The Washington County Quorum Court has adopted a resolution supporting a request for a new judge and agreed to help renovate and expand the juvenile justice building. The building was built in 2000.

“I strongly believe that if an additional courtroom is to be built it should be at the Juvenile Justice Complex so that the additional judge can handle a juvenile caseload,” Zimmerman told county officials. “Given the services provided, it would be safer for children and families and more efficient.”

Washington County’s population increased from 111,127 in 1989, when the position of juvenile judge was created, to more than 225,000 in 2015, Zimmerman noted.

The number of children in foster care in Washington County has gone from 83 in 2009 to 313 last year, Zimmerman told county officials recently. Zimmerman held 393 juvenile detention hearings last year. In all, 1,181 juveniles were cited by law enforcement and had to appear in juvenile court in 2017, about half of those were sent to diversion programs.