Accurate Domestic Violence Reporting by and for Louisiana Courts Frank DiFulco CMIS Director Louisiana Supreme Court Spring Judges Conference LOUISIANA JUDICIAL COLLEGE April 16-17, 2015 Lafayette Hilton & Towers Lafayette, Louisiana
IMPROVING THE REPORTING OF PROTECTION ORDERS & MCDV IN LOUISIANA
LOUISIANA PROTECTIVE ORDER REGISTRY (LPOR) 1 st Qtr 2015, received & processed 5,720 orders Processed the orders within 1.2 working day LPOR responded to 352 confirmation calls 66 Calls from NICS 286 Calls from Law Enforcement Recap of process Orders received by fax Reviewed by staff for issues Entered by staff into LPOR Once entered, available via LLETS or Direct Access Qualifying Orders Submitted to NCIC & NICS Orders Active as of 3/31/2015 LPOR 14,465 NCIC 11,405 NICS 757 ( Non Std. Orders & MCDV Convictions)
GETTING ORDERS TO NCIC NCIC (National Crime Information Center) Allows out of state and national criminal justice agencies access to LA Protective Orders Benefits of being in NCIC Victim may flee to another state Available to check at time of firearm purchase What is needed to get into NCIC A complete signed order on an LPOR Form Complete defendant information (Name, Race, Sex, DOB) Judge grants Full Faith & Credit
ORDERS DO NOT GET INTO NCIC BECAUSE Orders lacking Full, Faith & Credit 1,290 8.29% An order issued on a non LPOR form 1,361 9.41% A TRO without an expiration date 412 2.83% A verbal order issued in court No one has access to that type of order
TRO ISSUES FOR LPOR A non expiring TRO A TRO that expires at hearing Courts submit dismissal or dissolve to LPOR but Continued Continued without date Counsel will submit a stipulated order Was another TRO issued? Did the TRO expire that day? Was the order dismissed? How long do you wait for an order? A challenge for LEO how do they handle? Please utilize the LPOR forms Be mindful of the impact of non expiring TRO
CRIMINAL PROTECTION ORDERS Courts can utilize LPOR forms to issue: Bail Restrictions Peace Bonds Sentencing Orders Probation Orders Courts are utilizing the LPOR criminal orders 45 District Courts utilize bail orders 20 District Courts utilize sentencing/probation orders 5 City/Municipal Courts utilize bail orders 3 City/Municipal Courts utilize sentencing/probation orders 2 City/Municipal Courts utilize peace bonds
CHALLENGES WITH CRIMINAL ORDERS Bail Orders Magistrate case to allow tracking of case Someone has to be responsible Dissolve order when charge dismissed or nole prose Monitoring expiration date & when case filed/billed Bail & Sentencing Orders Verbal Order issued but only in minutes Not in the registry for access by CJA Not available in NCIC Not available to NICS for firearms check Victim not having a copy Work within your jurisdiction to setup responsibilities and process
MCDV REPORTING BY DISTRICT COURTS Acts 403/404 of 2013 task CMIS with responsibility to report felony convictions, judicial findings of mental incompetence, MCDV convictions, probation firearms prohibition and court issued firearms prohibition NICS for use in firearms purchase checks But also for posting to state Criminal History 54/64 District Courts reported 2,753 MCDV convictions in 2014 CMIS posted 2,583 to NICS CMIS posted only 753 to CCH
CHALLENGES IN MCDV REPORTING Why so few posted to CCH? CCH is print based and requires: A fingerprint based arrest to be present on criminal history the court disposition has to contain Defendant State Identification Number (SID) Date of arrest & booking for offense Review found the following cause Defendants being issued summons instead of arrested Arrest is not present on criminal history to match Bill of Information not supplemented with Defendant SID Date of Arrest
SUCCESSFUL MCDV REPORTING Review of who was successful for CCH posting Community coordination to address DV Law enforcement arrested/booked defendants instead of issuing summons Bill of Information supplemented with SID of defendant Date of Arrest Court provides disposition to CMIS Defendant properly sentenced under 14:95.10(C)
CMIS PROJECTS TO IMPROVE REPORTING OF DISPOSITIONS TO CCH & NICS Grant funding to District Courts to implement data exchange between DA/Clerk of Court Engaging jurisdictions to improve reporting Working with LSP to improve CCH to denote DV offenses and relationship to victim Improve access to dispositions not on CCH Review and engage Municipal & City Courts to report MCDV dispositions to CMIS
CONTACT INFORMATION Frank DiFulco, CMIS Director 504-310-2561 fdf@lasc.org
Frank DiFulco, CMIS Director, has worked with the CMIS Division for the past 20 years, starting out in the technical support group where he developed the specification for connecting the Protective Order Registry to LA State Police and the FBI NCIC System. Frank continued assisting LPOR once LPOR went online as the point of contact with La. State Police and FBI CJIS Division. Frank assisted with on-call duties for LPOR and was part of the LPOR training team until he moved up into CMIS management position to work on improving the appellate reporting for the CARS system and disposition reporting from the trial courts. Frank worked at the 4 th Circuit Court of Appeal for 10 years as an IT department of 1 where he also got to participate in the Appellate Delay project.