By David Hedges, Publisher
www.thetimesrecord.net
Some local officials are speaking out after the state Dept. of Health and Human Resources paid a woman's fine for littering.
The woman was issued a citation for littering last July, and was assessed fines and court costs totaling $310.50 by Magistrate Denver Gandee Jr.
Sheriff Todd Cole, who wrote the citation, said she had been dumping trash along Bear Fork when someone wrote down the license number of her vehicle and reported it to authorities.
Unable to pay the fine when it was assessed, the woman was put on a six-month payment schedule in magistrate court. She paid $55 last September and another $60 in October.
The remaining $195.50 was due last month, when the six months was about to expire. That amount was paid on her behalf by a check from the DHHR, where the woman is a client.
Since the DHHR cannot discuss individual clients, the woman's name is not disclosed in this story.
When contacted by this newspaper, a spokesperson for the DHHR in Charleston first denied that the DHHR had a program to pay citations for clients. When contacted a second time, she said the same thing. After being provided the check and receipt number, she looked into the matter further and said there is such a program.
Marsha Dadisman of the DHHR Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs said that under a 1984 court ruling known as the Gibson decree, the DHHR could pay for services that may prevent children from being removed from their homes.
Since the client involved had children, and could have potentially gone to jail for an unpaid fine, that allowed the DHHR to issue a check for the unpaid portion of the fine and court costs.
"If she didn't pay the fine, she would have gone to jail," Dadisman said. "Any children she had would have become wards of the state. It would be less expensive for us to pay the fine rather than take custody of the children.
"We can't remove a child because their parent is poor," she said. "We can help pay a fine if it keeps a child in the home. Our main goal is to keep the family together."
Gandee, a magistrate for more than seven years, said he had never heard of anyone going to jail for an unpaid fine.
"We don't actually do that," Gandee said.
Gandee said the prosecuting attorney can file a contempt of court charge for unpaid citations. But both the first and second convictions for contempt carry only fines and court costs.
A third offense conviction for contempt of court carries a possible jail term of up to five days.
Gandee said that a few years ago the magistrate court and prosecutor's office came up with a list of names and addresses to send letters of notices of contempt. He said the effort did not bring in much, since many people had changed addresses or simply failed to respond for one reason or another.
He said state supreme court officials who oversee the magistrate system discourage such efforts.
"The supreme court says it costs more in the long run than it's worth," Gandee said.
Gandee said this was the first case he was aware of in which the DHHR paid a fine for someone.
"I have no idea why," he said. "My assistant got a phone call (from DHHR). She gave them the information and they sent a check.
"It amounts to one state agency using taxpayers' money to pay another agency," Gandee said. "It doesn't seem right that an individual would have their fine for a criminal offense paid by a state agency. Nobody pays anybody else's fine and court costs."
Cole said DHHR should have looked into the matter a little more.
"It seems like it's too easy for someone to call DHHR and say 'I've got a fine and I'm going to lose my kids,'" the sheriff said.
Cole also said the agency needs to rethink its policy of providing transportation to clients so they can participate in job training or travel to work.
Cole said his officers have stopped vehicles for violations on several occasions, only to learn that the car was registered to DHHR.
"We run into cases where DHHR is providing transportation to people out here committing crimes," he said. "There's just something not right about that."
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