By Will Richmond
GateHouse News Service
Tue Oct 23, 2007, 11:53 PM EDT
Fall River - In an effort to reduce a backlog of cases, some hearings for Superior Court criminal cases will be heard in Fall River.
Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter announced Tuesday that a pretrial motion session will be held at the Fall River Superior Court beginning today.
The new session will be presided over by Superior Court Judge Lloyd Macdonald and include evidentiary suppression hearings, non-evidentiary motions to suppress, motions to dismiss hearings and other pre-trial evidentiary hearings.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, the Superior Court case load went from 380 cases in late 2005 to 587 by the time Sutter took office in early 2007 after defeating 16-year District Attorney Paul F. Walsh.
Sutter, crediting a new Superior Court management style, said that number has since decreased to 460 and should be further reduced with the new session.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in just nine months, but I felt strongly that more had to be done to bring the Superior Court case load down to a more manageable level,” Sutter said. “That is why I pushed so hard for this new motion session, and that is why I am so grateful to Chief Justice (Barbara) Rouse for agreeing with me about the need for an extra court session.”
The decision to hold the extra session was made after Sutter met several times with Rouse and Regional Administrative Justice E. Susan Garsh. The numerous meetings, Sutter spokesman Gregg Miliote said, were held to nail down specifics for the operation of the court, which has been limited to civil suits in recent years.
Miliote would not comment on why such a backlog of cases had developed, saying that it occurred on Walsh’s watch. Sutter said those familiar with the situation recognized the need to make improvements.
“From the moment I sat down with Chief Justice Rouse and Judge Garsh during the transition period last fall, it was obvious to me that they had a firm grasp of the problems that had developed as a result of the dramatic increase in Superior Court cases during the last year of the Walsh administration,” Sutter said. “The system was bursting at the seams when I came into office, but through the management of my First Assistant District Attorneys Thomas Quinn and Bill McCauley, we have already significantly reduced the backlog. Due to the vision exhibited by Judge Rouse and Judge Garsh, I expect the backlog to be further reduced by the end of this year.”
The use of the Fall River Superior Court is expected to continue through the end of the year, though Miliote said a review of the service will take place and possibly lead to further sessions next year.
“It’s a possibility we’ll discuss when we see where we are at the end of the year,” Miliote said.
For Sutter, the motion session, which will hear cases involving all Bristol County matters, will be managed by the office’s Chief of the District Court Support Staff Nancy DeMello.
Her duties will include scheduling motion hearings, contacting witnesses and acting as a liaison between the District Attorney’s Office and the Superior Court Clerk’s office.
“This is a wonderful week for Bristol County. We broke ground on a new courthouse in Fall River and are now announcing a new motion session to speed up the court process so that victims and their families can have closure sooner than in the past,” Sutter said. “The people of Bristol County are indebted to Chief Justice Rouse for her leadership and vision.”
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