Oct 9, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Court administrators are tweaking Greene County’s new video arraignment system less than two weeks after the central booking protocol was implemented.

Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman signed an amendment Friday to his Sept. 21 order that created the new evening and weekend booking procedures that require criminal defendants to be transported to the county jail while they await video arraignment by the on-call magistrate.

The amendment changed the name of the program from “central book center” to an “arraignment center” so as to comply with state law that would have required the plans to first be approved by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Court officials previously said the jail was never intended to be a full-time booking center, but instead a place to leave suspects before they’re arraigned on criminal charges.

“Everybody is still on the same page,” Toothman said. “We’re going to just take a half-step back.”

Other changes include having the arresting officer contact the on-call magistrate directly to explain the pending charges and any other circumstances surrounding the case. Jail workers will then fax the officer’s arresting documents to the magistrate, allowing the police officer to return to patrols.

Toothman met Wednesday with county Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall and district judges Louis Dayich and Glenn Bates to discuss how to improve the procedure. Dayich was the first on-call magistrate to handle the video arraignments since it went info effect Oct. 1 and he expressed concerns that emergency dispatchers – and not the arresting police officer – were notifying them of the need for an arraignment.

“Everyone sort of agreed that it would be better if the police officer was responsible for notifying the (magistrate),” Toothman said.

The biggest need for the change, however, was that the $100 fee assessed to people who eventually plead guilty or are convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, among other situations, must first be approved by the state PCCD. Without that authorization from the state, the money could not be collected.

PCCD spokesman Matthew Leonard said a form must be completed by court administrators explaining the system before it is reviewed and approved by the agency.

“It sounds like there was just some confusion with the paperwork,” Leonard said.

Toothman said they decided to pull that $100 fee and will decide later whether to request for it to be reinstated. The funds collected were to be used to eventually purchase a $50,000 fingerprint scanner at the jail.

“We want to put a fee so that money could be spent on buying the equipment,” Toothman said.