ULSTER COUNTY – Police chiefs from several departments in Ulster County are blaming the Ulster County Public Defender for keeping officers off the streets while watching defendants who cannot be arraigned because the public defenders are not showing up for arraignments in local courts. If officers are not available to watch the defendant, they are typically released back into society.
Officers who arrest someone and need to get them arraigned after court hours in the Esopus Justice Court are being turned away. When officers call the after-hours number for arraignments in that court, they are met with a recording that says the court cannot do after-hours arraignments due to the lack of public defenders.
Town of Lloyd Police Chief Jim Janso expressed his frustration, saying that not having a public defender available after-hours has become a “burden” on his department as well as a “safety factor for our officers and our community.” Citing several instances in the past few weeks where an arraignment was unable to occur because a public defender was not made available, Janso said: “It is very frustrating for my officers to have to stay with a defendant for several hours at the station until a public defender becomes available, or if none are available, we have to release the defendant.” Chief Janso also intimated that public safety is jeopardized when the public defender’s office refuses to show up for arraignments, keeping an officer in the station. “It takes that officer off the road for an unknown amount of time which leaves our department and our town with one less officer on patrol,” he said, calling the practice “unacceptable.”
Similar occurrences have been experienced in Rosendale and the Town of Ulster.
Ulster County is developing a “Central Arraignment Part” known as CAP Court that will hold arraignments for defendants arrested when a town or village court is closed which is typically nights and weekends, according to Ulster County Legislator Gina Hansut, who serves as the legislature’s public safety committee chairwoman. Town of Ulster Justice Kyle Barnett is the point person for the committee that is working on the establishment of the new court. Hansut, when asked about the current inability to arraign defendants, said “I appreciate the frustration of our police chiefs and look forward to helping them in this situation.”
Mid-Hudson News brought the issue to the attention of Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger and asked if there was a new directive that has made public defenders unavailable after hours compared to past practice and Metzger’s office said no new orders were in place to prevent arraignments after 5 p.m. “The public defender’s office, like many offices, is facing staffing shortages, especially in the area of Counsel at First appearance.” The county executive believes the new court will help alleviate the current problem, noting that the Ulster County Public Defender is working with the committee to get the new court up and running. “CAP Court will allow centralized arraignment at the Law Enforcement Center, reducing the need for Counsel at First Appearance.”
The CAP Courts have been allowed since a change in New York State law in 2016 and across the state several have been instituted, including one in Orange County.
