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ELO Municipal Court reports year-end figures

EAST LIVERPOOL — During 2018, East Liverpool Municipal Court collected a total of $739,738 through fines and costs, nearly $26,000 more than the previous year, according to figures released this week by Clerk Candace K. Page.

Assisting in collection of fines and costs was the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, with whom the court contracted in 2014 to aggressively help collect fines at no cost to the court. During 2018, the AG’s office collected $16,804.

There were 2,778 charges filed during 2018, compared to 2,570 during the previous year.

During 2018, there was a total of 2,799 cases heard in Municipal Court, compared to 2,740 the previous year.

Last year, 2,179 traffic/criminal cases were heard, compared to 2,045 during 2017.

In the small claims/civil division, 620 civil cases were filed in 2018, a drop from 695 in 2017, with 234 garnishments filed and 692 cases disposed of in 2018.

The court noted there were 74 OVI cases filed in 2018 compared to 86 the previous year, with St. Clair Township police filing 30 (27 last year); East Liverpool city police, 28 (30) ; Liverpool Township, 10 (16); Ohio State Patrol, six (12); Sheriff, none (one); and ODNR park ranger, none (none).

In 2018, the court collected in the traffic/criminal division fines, court costs, LEEF and unclaimed money totaling $397,355, which did not include computer fund money of $35,609; maintenance fee fund money of $51,646; indigent driver interlock fund money of $2,513; probation fund money of $36,103; and indigent driver/alcohol treatment (IDAT) money of $2,442.

The city’s budget received $143,974 from the court’s collections, including $28,740 to the police department in city ordinance fines, LEEF and drug fines.

Liverpool Township Police Department received $11,343 in fines, LEEF and drug fines; and St. Clair Township Police Department, $29,576 in fines, LEEF and drug fines.

About 2,000 review hearings were conducted by the judge to enforce payment of fines and costs, and in the court’s driver license reinstatement program monitored by the judge, 42 defendants were successful in obtaining liability insurance and a valid license. Combined with the probation department’s 11 defendants with valid licenses and insurance, that totaled 53 people.

Probation ended the year with 146 people on active probation and 284 on unsupervised probation, while another 45 were being electronically monitored by the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) program.

The Global Position System (GPS) monitoring had 38 participants which saved the county daily prisoner costs totaling $45,165, with $936 collected in the GPS funds.

The Soberlink monitoring device had 20 participants.

The probation department collected $790 in BMV reinstatement fees, and probationers paid $7,895 in restitution to victims of crime during the year.

In the community service program 57 workers served at 23 non-profit locations in the city, townships and other locations for a total of 2,974 hours of free work.

Among those locations were Columbiana-Metropolitan Housing Authority, The Way Station, Community Resource Center, Family Care Ministries, One Day at a Time Club, VFW, East Liverpool Christian School, New Salem Presbyterian, East Liverpool City Hall, Columbiana County Fairgrounds, Columbiana County Dog Pound, Liverpool Township Police Department, Newell Fire Department, Glenmoor Fire Department, Wellsville First Christian Church, East Springfield Church, FISH, Circles Club, The Moose Lodge, Columbiana County Jail, Mt. Calvary Cemetery, St. Stephens Church and 1st Church of Christ-East Liverpool.

jgilbert@mojonews.com

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