Hammons tells UNITE Coalition backlogged DUI cases have been given top priority

Nearly one year ago, Bob Hammons appeared as a candidate at a Whitley County UNITE Coalition community forum for county attorney candidates.

Among other things, the forum discussed issues, such as a backlog of 4,800 pending cases in district court and numerous pending DUI cases in Whitley County.

Monday night, Hammons, who is now Whitley County Attorney, appeared during a regular monthly meeting of the local UNITE Coalition to provide the community with an update about DUI cases and other efforts he has made since he took office on Nov. 16.

Between Nov. 16, 2012 and June 1, there have been 177 DUI convictions in Whitley County.

"That averages out to about one DUI conviction per day during his time in office," Whitley County UNITE Coalition Chairperson Angelika Lewis-Bowling noted during Monday evening’s meeting.

"We don’t want to be known as a coalition that points out all the problems and never the end result," she said complimenting Hammons on his efforts to address the backlog of DUI cases.

Hammons noted that improving the DUI conviction rate has not been an easy job, and he credits his staff, police, court officials and others for their efforts too.

"When I came into this office, I tried to change the culture. I’m very happy we’ve come this far with DUI convictions," Hammons said.

In addition, Hammons credits the Whitley County UNITE Coalition for helping improve the system by demanding accountability.

Hammons said that the biggest obstacle he has to getting the DUI cases resolved is getting lab reports back in a timely manner because many of the DUI arrests now involve drugs instead of alcohol and the testing takes longer.

Two police officers present for Monday’s meeting noted that it is not uncommon to wait six to 12 months for lab results in DUI cases involving drugs rather than alcohol.

This is due in part to a backlog of testing and because of state budget cuts to the crime lab, officials said.

The delay in getting lab results is also resulting in some DUI cases involving drugs being dismissed.

"Judge Fred White is doing a lot of the DUI’s right now. He has a standing rule right now that if it is not back in six months, he will dismiss the charge," Hammons said in response to a question from the press.

In most of those cases, the DUI cases are being dismissed with prejudice meaning that the charges can’t be reinstated once lab results are back, Hammons said.

Hammons said that since he took office, he has also been pushing for pretrial suspensions of driver’s licenses in DUI cases that qualify. He noted this is a good incentive to keep defendants from trying to have their DUI cases continued indefinitely.

Hammons said he is also working with defense attorneys to have hearings when necessary in DUI cases.

"Not everybody, who is charged with DUI, is guilty of DUI," he added.

Last week was the first time that Hammons said he can recall where lab technician showed up to testify in a DUI case in Whitley County.

Hammons is currently actively working to get older DUI cases cleared from the docket as well.

When he first took office, the Williamsburg division of district court had about 60 pending DUI cases that were more than 90 days old, but that number has now been reduced to by over 50 percent, Hammons noted.

Whitley County UNITE Coalition Co-Chair Adam Sulfridge added that he doesn’t think things will ever get back to the point where there are DUI cases a decade-old still pending on the docket.

Not just DUI cases

Hammons noted that his office not only deals with DUI cases, but many other issues, such as delinquent tax collection and property tax collections.

Last month his office sent out 3,000 letters to delinquent taxpayers.

When Hammons took office, the Whitley County Child Support Office ranked 120 out of 120 counties in the state in terms of child support collections.

The office has since moved up to 119 out of 120 counties.

While not a big change, it is a start, he added.

Hammons said he has had his entire child support collection staff retrained in order to improve collection of child support.

"I have lived in court on child support cases that is just something that I don’t think we should tolerate," Hammons said. "There is no sense in us in Whitley County to be last in anything."

Since he has been in office, Hammons said he has implemented a "rocket docket" for some traffic cases.

For instance, if someone gets a ticket for not having their vehicle registration with them but they do have valid registration, then they can contact his office, which will do a action report in the case.

The office will look up the vehicle registration and then put a copy of it in the file so the ticketed person doesn’t have to come to court.

The case is then dismissed without prejudice on the condition the person doesn’t have another violation within 12 months.

"It is to keep the working people working and out of the court system," he added.

Other matters

In addition, the coalition discussed Camp UNITE, which is sponsored by the Operation UNITE, and will be held next week at the University of the Cumberlands.

The four-day camp will feature fun activities and motivational speakers and targets about 247 at-risk children from 25 southern and eastern Kentucky counties.