News

July 3, 2009

Caseload changes at court location

Beginning Aug. 1, only criminal cases in Wilkes-Barre will be heard in Central Court.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – The reorganization of Luzerne County’s Central Court was finalized on Thursday with a judicial order.

Court of Common Pleas President Judge Chester Muroski ordered that criminal cases under previous orders will continue to be heard at the Central Court Office in the Thomas C. Thomas Building at 100 E. Union St., Wilkes-Barre, until July 31, with all 17 magisterial district judges rotating Central Court duty in that office.

But beginning Aug. 1, only criminal cases occurring in Wilkes-Barre, which includes the magisterial districts of judges William Amesbury and Martin Kane, will be in Central Court.

For cases involving crimes that occur elsewhere in the county, defendants’ arraignments and preliminary hearings will be heard in the magisterial districts in which the crimes originated, unless assigned to Central Court by the president judge when “in the best interest of the judicial economy,” the order states.

Muroski said Central Court could be used to accommodate proceedings from other magisterial districts involving “substantial drug raids, burglary rings, things that require a courtroom that can accommodate a large number of defendants in a central place.”

Amesbury and Kane will continue hearing traffic, non-traffic and civil cases at their current respective offices. They will rotate the handling of criminal cases at Central Court, Kane said.

At least one magisterial district judge will preside in Central Court when court is in session, and all district judges in the county will have jurisdiction and authority to preside in Central Court if needed.

The order also states that each district judge’s office will be equipped with a video-conference webcam system as supplied by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts so that proceedings for defendants at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility can be conducted without the expense of prisoner transport. Currently, only Central Court has a video-conferencing webcam system.

And Muroski will ask the AOPC to allow Senior Magisterial District Judge Andrew Barilla, who currently presides in Central Court, to continue there. “He’s done a good job,” Muroski said

He also expects Central Court Administrator Jim Torbik will remain in his position.

Muroski said he expects two current Central Court secretaries will remain working there; the others either have been or are in the process of being transferred to other magisterial offices.

The changes follow an extensive review of Central Court that included a public hearing on Feb. 24. The court en banc heard from the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices, the Central Court administrator and the Luzerne County Chiefs of Police Association.

State police and law enforcement officials from municipalities farthest from Wilkes-Barre supported returning criminal proceedings to the magisterial districts in which the cases originated because of cost and manpower concerns.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 497-7004.

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