From: To: Subject: Date:

Taylor, Julie Barnard, Jackelyn FW: Teen Court/Civil Citations Wednesday, April 02, 2014 5:11:11 PM

From: Corey, Angela Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 2:02 PM To: Hon. William H. Wilkes; Hon Robert Foster; Moran, Donald R. Cc: Stelma, Joe; Peek, Cheryl; McCarthy, Daniel "SAO"; Taylor, Julie; Louder, Alan; 'mas@pd4.coj.net'; Corey, Angela Subject: Teen Court/Civil Citations

Dear Judges Moran, Foster, and Wilkes: Please accept this less formal communication with my apology but I see a need to immediately rectify any misconception as to our position on Teen Court and Civil Citations. As I have clearly stated on numerous occasions (including one full meeting with Joe Stelma, Matt Shirk and Shelly Grant among others) I am very much in favor of the purpose behind Civil Citations, i.e., to give juveniles who commit certain minor offenses a chance at intervention without creating a juvenile record for them if they successfully completed the program. I did, however, and still do, take issue with calling anything to do with the criminal justice system civil and all of the lawyers in the group had issues with the phrasing of the citation form itself. My main objection to the CC program was the way it was implemented by the former State Attorneys administration: 1) the use of the grant money, and, 2) the fact that the citations were restricted to use on school campus by SROs. My feeling was that it created an inequity among our first offenders. My example was that if one teenager stole a wallet from a school locker and on that same day a different teenager stole a scarf from a store at the mall, the first teenager would get a great benefit from receiving a civil citation that the second teenager would not receive. So, quite frankly, I have been advocating expanding the use of the citations, not limiting the use of them. I have never said anything other than that we would fully cooperate with this program. In fact, just the opposite, Julie has done extensive research on the citations and found better phrasing from another jurisdiction. I have asked our staff to make certain that the civil citations were handled uniformly in all three of our counties, and just last Friday I asked Judge Foster if we could host a meeting here at the SAO for all three counties to meet re civil citations. We also offered to help train law enforcement on the purpose and proper use of the Civil Citation statute. I would still love to meet on this issue. I truly believe that our citizens and police can benefit from this program if properly implemented. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Angela
Angela Corey State Attorney Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida