New Ferguson Judge Overhauls Municipal Courts

He also announced changes to conditions for pre-trial release in which defendants will be given new court dates and alternative dispositions such as payment plans, community service or commuting fines for the indigent.

City of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said McCullin issued the orders with the Ferguson City Council’s support.

It highlighted that arrest warrants were being issued if fines for minor offences – such as parking and driving violations – were not paid, instead of arrests on the basis of public safety.

Ferguson, Missouri’s newly appointed municipal judge announced sweeping changes to the city’s court system on Monday, including the withdrawal of every arrest warrant issued in Ferguson prior to December 31, 2014, Reuters reports. In the past, the city’s director of revenue would suspend a defendant’s driver’s license exclusively for failing to appear in court or failing to pay a fine. A Justice Department report released earlier this year revealed the city disproportionately doled out tickets and arrest warrants for minor offenses in an effort by the courts to collect fines for city revenue.

“I want to make sure that any of the concerns of the Justice Department and the Supreme Court have been addressed by that time and that it’s a fully operational court that addresses the needs of the community”, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shortly after his appointment.

The announcement came ahead of a major new municipal reform law taking effect this week-Senate Bill 5, which will put a cap on court revenues from fines and fees, among other things.

Explaining in a press release that he wanted to give residents “a fresh start”, Judge Donald McCullin said the warrants – most of which were issued to residents who failed to appear in court for lesser crimes – would be withdrawn, and the cases would be revisited on an individual basis.

“It’s about time”, she said.

“It doesn’t give them a free pass”, McCullin said, according to News Channel 5.

More broadly though, Harvey wondered aloud if the changes in Ferguson would matter that much if the county’s roughly 80 municipal courts have differing rules and philosophies.

Michael Brown’s death was one of a number of contentious cases in the US in which white officers killed unarmed black men.