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Government Admits To Flaws In Record System
March 01, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein
New York State officials are looking into errors on the criminal history reports of people who had been charged in Cambridge Town Court, where it appears that cases that were supposed to have been sealed were not sealed.
The problems have resulted in criminal charges appearing on the “rap sheets” of five people when they should not have, Cambridge Supervisor William “Beaver” Watkins said.
The state Office of Court Administration was looking into the issue and had corrected the error that was confirmed to have been made in one case, where a criminal history was wrong based on a case that had not been sealed, said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for OCA. He said no other erroneous reports had been confirmed.
“I don’t think right now there is any reason to believe the errors are rampant,” Bookstaver said.
The issues apparently occurred during the tenure of former Cambridge Town Justice Thomas Armet, who served as justice from 2002 to 2009.
They were discovered in recent months when a number of former defendants who had cases in Cambridge Town Court learned that their criminal history reports showed arrests that should not have appeared because the cases were considered “sealed.”
“It’s a little concerning when people who shouldn’t have any record show up as having a criminal record,” Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright said.
When a person is charged with a crime and a disposition that is “favorable” to the defendant — such as a dismissal or acquittal — later occurs in court, the file is ordered sealed by the presiding judge and the arrest is supposed to be wiped from the defendant’s criminal history.
Among those who have been affected by the Cambridge issues were a local man who was trying to get into the U.S. Marine Corps and was being hindered by a criminal case that appeared on his rap sheet, Watkins said. The charge had been dismissed and the case sealed. Bookstaver said that man’s case was the one that had been addressed.
Bookstaver said there are “nuances” to the law as to what records are sealed and in what way they are sealed, and a misunderstanding of the law might have played a part in the concerns.
Armet said Tuesday that he believed “anything that was supposed to be sealed was sealed” and the issues occurred outside of his court record-keeping.
“When you’re dealing with a big bureaucracy like the state, things fall through the cracks,” he said.
Cambridge Town Justice Janet DeCarlo, who succeeded Armet, has been working to identify cases that apparently weren’t sealed as they should have been.
DeCarlo confirmed Tuesday that the review was ongoing and said the town had agreed to hire a part-time worker to review files, but referred further comment to Watkins and the state Office of Court Administration.
DeCarlo has also been working with Kortright’s staff to compare records of case dispositions, Kortright said.
Criminal records are kept by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, based on records provided by police and the court system.
Janine Kava, a spokeswoman for DCJS, said anyone who believes there is an error on their criminal history report can contact DCJS and try to get a disposition certificate from the court where the case in question was heard.
Kortright said his office has heard of similar problems in other courts in the region occasionally over the years, though not to the extent of the Cambridge issues that have come to light recently.
“Some judges have better record-keeping than other judges,” he said.
