001five four three two welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson meet the court is brought to you as a public service by the Superior Court of New Jersey in Atlantic and kme counties as well as the Cape May Technical High School to better inform you the public on the workings of the court and the role of the judiciary in our communities our topic community safe surrender what is this program that helps so many people in our community our guests the Honourable Luis Velasco presiding judge of the municipal courts in Atlantic in Cape May County welcome judge thank you John Revere and Jill Hulk assistant trial court administrator in the Atlantic in Cape May counties welcome Joe welcome thank you so my first question explain to our viewers what community safe surrender is
002and what the event looks like a community safe surrender event allows a member of the public who may have a bench warrant go to a safe neutral place like a church or a school to meet with judiciary staff to determine whether they have any bench warrants and where those bench warrants might be bench warrants that can be recalled are recalled on-site and then if sometimes the person can actually see a judge either at the school or the church or go to a Municipal Court that's close by but the most important thing about the event is that no one is arrested even if it's a bench warrant that cannot be recalled no one gets arrested they they have the option to leave the neutral place with that warrant and and handle it later so no one
003gets arrested that's fascinating there's a perception July that this is a setup that people will really be arrested and we want to clear that up because this is no way is set up for it to arrest anyone so we'll talk more about that but before we do can you give some examples you said schools churches where else can these events be held well so far we've held them at several community centers at a church and and most recently at the the lighthouse Church in in came a courthouse and why did you choose these locations the towns were chosen because they these towns where we've had these events to an Atlantic City so far one in Pleasantville and one in middle township because those communities do have a higher percentage of bench warrants as well as
004may have you know some lower socioeconomic population so the people that we you know want to help more but obviously we help everyone that comes through the door judge how important is the socio-economic situation of the folks that come through the door and rectifying it so many people get themselves in a hole with court fines that are legislatively set courts we have very little discretion in setting fines but they get further and further in debt deeper and deeper in a hole and they often just will throw up their hands and ignore it and this gives them an opportunity to address what they owe in a reasonable manner without fear of having warrants in over their head so that sounds like really important work and you explained to me any other reasons why these events are
005so important well the these bench warrants that are addressed are for minor offenses and minimal amounts however when someone has a bench warrant it might preclude them from getting substance abuse treatment housing a job so someone that wants to address their court matters or get help for themselves sometimes can be excluded from those programs if they have a bench warrant so clearing up these vent warrants allows the person to get more help for themselves and it also allows them to drive you know without anxiety with their kids in the car you know have contact with law enforcement it really does increase public safety seems like it can help their credit and their job outlook as well because they don't have to worry about these things in the background exactly so it sounds like a lot
006of work are the courts the only organizations involved in these events no this is definitely a partnership you know the local police department is involved not to arrest people but actually there are the ones that have to recall the warrants but they also you know helped us organize the event the local municipal courts and also we partnered with a charity a local charity that will assist us with you know providing volunteers providing the facility and community resources also show up as well and are available to help people so how many people do you typically serve at one of these events we've had between 100 to over 500 Wow over 500 people our first event in Cape May County just last month we served 95 people the one before that in Atlantic City I think that
007final number was about 525 so it seems the reason why you can have to have these events at a place like a school or a community center because you're attracting a lot of individuals have any of those individuals been arrested now and and some people did have warrants that could not be recalled and they chose the option you know to leave with that bench warrant and they were not arrested okay so some critics will probably say well this sounds like it's soft on crime and the response to that criticism well Jawad as jill has said this gives people the opportunity to get a warrant recalled now they can go look for a job we have the Motor Vehicle Commission on site they have the opportunity to work through driving late driver's license issues and eventually
008get their driver's license back and be able to drive so if they can get them their lives back in order and hopefully get a job it probably has the advantage of reducing crime rather than soft on crime it's not and it's not a program that is aimed at wiping out all criminal debt that's not what we're there for so now I would say it's not really soft on crime it it has a neutral effect if anything that may help people get their lives get back on track so piggybacking on that it seems like you're bringing folks up to 500 into a place where they can have a one-stop shop where a lot of services are being rendered for them right then and there does that have an overall benefit to Public Safety and maybe save
009the taxpayers some money I think it certainly does and the pub the benefit the public safety is well law enforcement is not at risk going out and serving these warrants and walking into a situation behind closed doors that they don't know what's going to happen to them the public's not at risk by somebody getting pulled over in a car realizing they have a warrant and speeding off to avoid apprehension this gives the opportunity for them to do one-stop shopping come here get their warrants recalled and maybe get some benefits we have somebody at the middle township event we were able to hook them up with a treatment bed that day to get them into drug treatment because of other problems that they were dealing with in their life so it sounds like this has an
010opportunity to not only save money but save lives and save individuals from fates that maybe they didn't want to encounter and they've been avoiding all this time when we were in middle township we I saw someone that came up from South Carolina we had someone that came from Maryland I spoke to a gentleman that moved out of New Jersey because of trial support and municipal warrants and was living in Delaware and he had children here this gave him the opportunity to deal with these issues and come back and hopefully re-ignite is the relationship with his children so are there plans to continue offering this type of outreach we have about 30 seconds recently right Joe yes we were planning an event in December that will be in Galloway but again all warrants in Atlantic and
011Cape May County will be addressed so you know anyone can attend you know but that it will likely be in December in Galloway and then again in Atlantic City and approximately May or June thank you this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we're back with our guests discussing community safe surrender after this message okay they mind if in the first question and I address like open teepees even if they have stuff without marks yeah yeah once we're doing it right whoa where's that somewhere else anywhere it is anywhere else it is judged if we ate no no problem more than one yeah and you can even go as I say but in the last segment you know okay yeah both times and just flows just follow with the answers naturally and if
012we get redundant and everybody just repeat her right absolutely yeah that doesn't hurt to be repeating especially because we've positioned a lot of these questions were it's into information each time welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we've been discussing community safe surrender and its benefits as a whole to the public with our guest judge Belasco and Joe Hulk so my next question is when people have active warrants and they're interested in coming to an event like we just described what should they know before coming they should know do I that they're going to walk into a large auditorium and we have about 35 to 45 volunteers from the Superior Court from Municipal Court all in uniform pretty much that they'll be able to pick out these people they'll be signed
013in they'll be given a number they'll be processed through a computer bank that's tied to the internet so we can look everything up on them they should be prepared though to come to one of these events knowing where what they owe do they have a child-support warrant do they have a probation issue do they oke monies to various municipal courts other than just one even if they owe money and it's not on a warrant yet it might be so they should be able to help the screener can come up with all of their information so that we can address the whole person at one time so they need to know what's going on in their lives so that they can better assist us with helping to resolve some of these things so Joe had mentioned
014that there are certain types of warrants we can a certain type of warrants that we cannot recall starting first what type of warrants can be recalled at this type of event the warrants that can be recalled will be warrants for municipal court cases such as a traffic ticket or a criminal complaint where they failed to appear they just ignored it and did not come to court we can recall warrants where someone has been to court Municipal Court they owe money they fell behind they failed to keep their money up the court issued a warrant that's a warrant we can recall we have some minor in dateable charges more is a little more serious third and fourth-degree charges and if they have warrants for those we have the ability to recall most of those warrants trial
015support warrants we are doing the last one we did was on a Friday during a work day we were able to recall some child support warrants for people also so we what can be cleared so give me some examples of what cannot be cleared we haven't run into this yet but if somebody has a first or second degree charge very very serious assault charges robberies they're not going to be cleared they're going to have to turn themselves in we have made a decision that if somebody has an active warrant because they received a drunk driving ticket and never showed up in court we're not going to recall that warrant they're not going to get arrested on sight as Jill said earlier but they're going to have to leave they're realizing there's a warrant and they
016need to turn themselves in as soon as possible so if I have a first or second degree charge and I show up that well I won't that won't get me arrested right then and there but I know that I have to walk out of there and deal with it before it does lead to my arrest yes and we have had some second degree charges that you know could have their warrant recalled it's you know basically my discretion you know based on the scenario if it's something that I think should be recalled despite it being second degree than I do contact a judge to get permission to recall it but you know first degree that's a different story okay so what can people expect the process to be like when they walk in the door well
017be patient we have to do a lot of background research they can should not expect to walk in at nine o'clock and walk out at 9:30 we do have some snacks we do have a friendly waiting area but it we need their patience it does take some time snack sounds like a good idea something like that so I got my driver's license suspended as a result of some of the issues that I had in my past are my driving fluids is able to be restored it's something like this you know that is a big issue Jawad and unfortunately we can because the judiciary did not suspend their driving privileges that suspension came to the Motor Vehicle Commission however at our last event we had a representative from the regional service center of the Motor Vehicle
018Commission and I think he must have talked to 30 different people and took their information down they will work with them working through motor vehicle issues whether it be surcharges or restoration fees or whatever it is to eventually get them restored but people should know they're not going to walk out of this event with their driving privileges back however they will walk out of this event a long way toward that goal of getting their driving driver's license back so they'll be on the road to having their drivers license restored no pun intended right there on that road there right so a person comes with a warrant from another County like Essex or Hudson can we deal with that at our community safe surrender event unfortunately no we only have the jurisdiction to recall the Atlantic
019and Cape May County warrants so if someone has an out of County warrant we give them the information we give them the phone number to call to you know address the warrant and you know so we give them paperwork and then also after the event the court will notify that particular court that you know John Smith showed up at this event they know to expect him or her and hopefully they will give them you know a little bit of credence for showing up at our event okay so maybe not out of county warrant but how about a Pennsylvania warrant or a Delaware warrant can those be cleared no and actually we don't even know if someone has an out-of-state warrant because we're not checking them outside of the state of New Jersey if someone asks
020and says they have an out-of-state warrant you know we would just again give them the information but that's all we could do so on average how many warrants are cleared at these events it ends up being about one per person who attends so some people don't have warrants they might just come because they have fines or they think they have a warrant and they just haven't gotten there yet so it ends up being about one warrant per person well this is meet the court and I'm your host Joe Johnson we'll be back with our guest judge Belasco and Joe Houck after these messages okay I don't want this yeah super fast Bob gave me two men with me before yeah that would be good be good welcome back to meet the court I'm your host
021Joe Johnson and we're continuing our conversation on safe surrender with our guests judge Belasco and Joe hawk so if someone can't pay all of their fines on that day what do they do actually Jawad we're not collecting any money at these events if someone has fines they owe and they work out a new payment plan they will leave with a payment order but what we did the last time and we were probably going to continue this is we have set up three on-site courtrooms so someone will be able to see a judge that day and if they work at their work out their fines they'll be given a payment order and they can leave without paying any money that day now when they get there they should know that our security guidelines require there be
022law enforcement protecting the judges so they're all there are some uniformed law enforcement officers there they're not roaming the floor they're kind of out of the way and we keep the courts in the back not out in the front where all the activity is so you have three courtrooms going and they get an order to pay their fines but where do they go from there from there they would go to there I mean it's a municipal court whatever Municipal Court they have we have tried to partner with the Municipal Court that is the host municipality so if we're having our next one in Galloway people will be able to go that same day right to the Galloway Township Municipal Court if they owe money to Galloway and pay their fines that they owe to Galloway
023there or get their monthly payments started there if they off is the Egg Harbor Township or to Ocean City or to another court then they're going to have to deal with those other courts not through Galloway so I have a bunch of different fines can my fines be lumped into one payment you know that would be wonderful but it's a beaut IT undertaking from the whole state of New Jersey so we can't do that right now what we have is we hope that our courts coordinate their payment plans so that we come up with a realistic monthly figure and a person would pay each court so much per month what they owe that would sound like a real benefit so are you able to at these events look up what fines I may have that
024I don't maybe not be aware of or don't remember can someone look up my whole entire case history we absolutely do that in fact we have found outstanding fines that people did not know about and we were able to address everything and the beauty of that is we can get to that payment plan reestablish before it becomes a warrant so our viewers who are watching this and if they may have a fine or a warrant in their background and they look they're looking to take care of it do they have to wait until one of these events to take care of the fines or if they're inspired can they go and take care of it right away absolutely not most of our Municipal Court administrator's that run our municipal courts and Jill can address for
025child support but if somebody comes to court and wants to address their fines they they can be set up to see a judge they can probably have their warrant recalled and they can go over their financial status with the judge to get to a realistic payment plan something that they know that they can meet every month and that the court will expect the money to come in every month so that we don't have any warrants so warrants and fines are there the only court matters that are being addressed at these events we have other matters being addressed we have some child support matters that were addressed at all of our events that we've run correct gas child support staff is always on staff we also have information about drug court expungements you know family court
026information so we address other things but you know most people do come for you know to get their warrants recalled so you mentioned child support and that we can recall the bench warrants but how about my payments can they work out the payments that I have there sometimes yes sometimes no you sometimes they will give the person a court date because they can't work out their payment with the the staff on-site they will have to ask the judge but they child-support will give them all that information and I would have questions maybe for probation officer are their probation officers at these events that can help me with questions that I might have most of the judiciary staff that is working at the event our probation officers because those are the ones trained to perform the
027background checks so the judge mentioned that there are police there and he mentioned that they hang back but what's that what are they doing there what's their role I mean they're there to provide you know security just in case something does happen but you know they know from the start that no one gets arrested even if they leave with an active warrant and the Chiefs of Police are fine with that and they agree with it to say that on the four events we have run so far the host municipality Chief of Police and law enforcement have been very supportive of what we're doing so I need to get my record cleared and I need help with an expungement or is there any information there about expungements yes we have a ton of information on expungements
028legal services of South Jersey legal services you know always attends these events and they help people with expungements filling out the paperwork filing it and walking the person through the process so I know there's no guarantee about how much fines and fees can be waived but or adjusted but what's the biggest success story that you can recall about someone who had a large amount of fines or fees and had and had those adjusted or done in a way that they could afford I saw a person at one of our recent events and they came in on a warrant that was about 13 years old their records showed that they had no other criminal activity since then they fell on real hard times they had some addiction issues they lost it he lost a good-paying job
029and based upon his financial status and where he stands now I was able to give him a better payment plan and give him credit for a lot and vacate some of that fine money that he owed he's very thankful and he got into a realistic position where he could pay and afford a small amount per month well so it sounds like folks who may show up with these events also may be looking for answers or other places is there information on housing healthcare and drug treatment yes all that information is available we have drug treatment resources we have housing information and housing resources available almost any community resource that you can think of is at the event so it sounds like an event like this is a one-stop shop for someone who may be trying
030to get their life back on track or maybe had some past historical issues and now they're trying to work those out because they can are there any is there anything that you would say to our viewing public that they should know about coming to an event judge we'll start with you well I would tell the public that this is not a an event set up to trick them and to get them arrested that the judiciary our volunteers are there to help them and we realistically want to work with them and put them on a plan that they can achieve success they can get a job they can work to get their driving privileges back they can take care of child support and they can essentially turn their lives around and that's what we're hoping for
031that's great and jail thirty seconds for you I just always tell people it's a judgment-free zone it's like plan of fitness we don't care why you have the bench more and it you know it doesn't matter what the backstory is we're just here to help the person and there's an old Japanese proverb fall down seven times stand up eight so we're hoping that these events help the person stand up for the eighth time well that sounds great and I hope that they're able to do this too and that our messages will help folks who are in need bring themselves to one of these events if they need it well we are just about out of time I'd like to thank our panel judge Louis Velasco and Joe Howe for joining us today on meet the
032court and I'd like to thank you our audience for being with us this is Joe Johnson - bye for now