New County Victimm-Witness Office

Wednesday, 16 January 2008 00:15

New County Victimm-Witness Office

The Amador County Board of Supervisors approved placing a modular office for the county’s Victim-Witness Program in the parking lot of the new courthouse on Argonaut Lane. Currently, the Victim-Witness office is located on Summit Street across from the old courthouse. But much of Victim-Witness activity is conducted during trials or hearings at the courthouse and the downtown office is now too far away to adequately serve victims, witnesses or the District Attorney’s staff, says D.A. Todd Riebe. Riebe says that last year his office assisted 589 victims and witnesses. DA staff and law enforcement officers are in and out of the Victim Witness office as well. When staff need to conference with victims or witnesses during a trial, they often have to meet in hallways or other public spaces, in full view of the perpetrator and in earshot of the opposing attorneys.

The county has been criticized for not including a victim-witness office in the newly remodeled courthouse building but county CAO Terri Daly emphasized that there was no oversight – placing the county’s Victim-Witness office inside what is to become the state’s courthouse would complicate and delay the legal transfer of the courthouse from county ownership to the courts.

The Supervisors were anxious to get the job done as soon as possible and approved the project and asked county counsel Martha Shaver to draft an appropriate agreement with the courts to occupy the space in the parking lot. GSA director Jon Hopkins said it would take 60 – 90 days to order the modular office and get it installed. Hopkins said that the judges are in favor of moving the Victim Witness office to the modular office. The court will charge what Daly called “a minimal amount of rent” for the space.

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