By Matt Dees
The News & Observer
DURHAM, N.C. — Pledges to reform long-standing ills of the criminal justice system in the wake of recent high-profile homicides continued Tuesday, with city and county leaders resolving to make a dent in Durham County’s 50,000 unserved arrest warrants.
“We’ve still been engaged in dynamic inaction on this issue,” council member Eugene Brown, who has tried for years to bring attention to the problem, said Tuesday at a joint meeting of city and county elected officials.
“Serving warrants is part of the front line of fighting crime, and we’ve done a ... lousy job of it.”
But Step 1 likely will involve letting thousands off the hook, not making more arrests: Old, low-level misdemeanors will be “purged” from the system altogether.
That will allow law enforcement to focus on more serious cases, several officials said.
Chief District Judge Elaine Bushfan told the City Council and Board of Commissioners that most outstanding warrants are served when a person is arrested on a separate charge, a “happenstance” approach she said is unacceptable.
City Manager Patrick Baker said the city will consider hiring additional police officers whose sole job would be to hunt down people with outstanding warrants and serve them.
The meeting Tuesday morning turned testy when County Manager Mike Ruffin noted that the sheriff’s office already has deputies who do that. “We’re in the warrant-serving business,” he said. “City police is not.”
Baker bristled.
“That’s not correct, Mike,” he said. “The idea that the Durham Police Department doesn’t serve warrants is inaccurate, and you know it. There’s just no need for finger-pointing.”
Baker then left the meeting, not to return. He said later that he was calling Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge to get figures about Durham police serving warrants.
A memo sent to the council later in the day showed that of the 14,544 warrants received by city police in 2007, 7,840 were served.
Chief Jose Lopez said Tuesday that he can’t spare any of his 500 sworn officers to focus exclusively on serving warrants, particularly if many of them aren’t high priorities.
Former District Attorney Mike Nifong told local leaders last year that of the 50,000 backlogged cases, about 37,000 were Class 2 or Class 3 misdemeanors five years old or older.
Many of those would be subject to purging, Baker said, though he pointed out that even that process will require additional manpower.
‘A high, scary number’
Lopez noted that phony addresses and people who left the state long ago will impede efforts to serve all warrants.
“There’s so many factors in that 50,000, that’s just a high, scary number,” Lopez said.
But the backlog issue is regaining traction amid growing cries for criminal justice reform, particularly in the probation system.
The latest Durham case involved Cory Anthony Jiggetts, 19, accused last week of killing Skye Moniqua Lee, 18, the mother of his infant son.
While the case has no direct connection to the warrant issue — there were no outstanding warrants for Jiggetts at the time of the homicide — it raised some officials’ eyebrows.
Probation officers started in February preparing paperwork to charge Jiggetts with violating probation, based on a 2007 conviction for breaking and entering, state Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree said.
Acree was asked why it took so long to even begin those proceedings.
“Therein lies the question,” Acree said, noting that’s why his department is conducting a review of the probation system.
Baker, Ruffin, Bushfan, District Attorney David Saacks and others will meet to discuss what can be done locally to clear the backlog.
City and county elected officials will meet again May 13 to discuss the issue.
Copyright 2008 The News & Observer