Courting Subscribers

By Ethan Smith A little off the top

Ahh, the local courts pages, sources of some of my favorite angry phone calls over the years.

You know the ones I'm talking about — District, Justice, Ronan, Polson and St. Ignatius court rulings. Now why do I suspect that those are the first pages some of you read every week?

There are other reasons besides gossip value for printing them, and as I mentioned in last week's column, it's worth sharing with you, since many of you ask me why we print those each week.

Reader interest is one of them, but that probably doesn't make you feel very good if your name has appeared for a speeding ticket, or worse.

Most court records are public records. Any one of you can go to district court and ask to see a file for a criminal case, although I'm somewhat hesitant to put this in print for fear of creating additional work for the nice ladies who work there. My reporters and I routinely do that to research cases, verify information and make sure we have our facts straight when you read about cases that have been processed in district court.

I should point out that if you ask for a case file, you will not be allowed to remove it from the general district court area, and also, there is often more sensitive information that will be removed from the file prior to you (or us) being allowed to view it. This can include highly sensitive pictures, pre-sentencing reports that often include a psychiatrist's or doctor's evaluation of a person, and other highly confidential information that falls outside of the public's "right to know."

District court

Almost all felonies committed in the county are prosecuted in district court, with the exception of a few that are bumped up to the federal court level, and the basic premise behind following these cases is because the crimes are usually big enough (i.e., a felony) to warrant attention.

There's another reason, too. It's to show you how your tax dollars are used, via the work that the county attorney's office, Sheriff's deputies and detectives, Tribal officers, Highway Patrol troopers, and Ronan, Polson and Mission officers put in serving you, the taxpaying public.

By telling you what sentences are handed down each week for each particular case, and by giving you background on the case, we are also in effect letting each reader play judge and jury as to whether you feel a fine and/or jail time was the fair sentence. Some of you might disagree with a particular sentence, but I have to say, with few exceptions, I rarely hear any outcry over a particular sentence.

Justice and city courts

As you noticed, we generally only print those convictions resulting in fines of $50 or more. However, most fines for even minor traffic offenses fall into this category, so it's not like we are leaving out a significant amount of the population each week.

Having said that, I'm sure many of don't appreciate seeing your name appear with a speeding ticket fine, or something more serious. The joke around the newsroom is that nobody has a problem with it until their name appears, but surprisingly, I only receive one or two phone calls every few months complaining about it.

Most people, it seems, just take their medicine, which also includes having your name in the paper.

But that doesn't answer the most frequently asked question, which is why do we even print these minor fines to begin with?

Good question.

One of the primary reasons is for accountability, and it's not just for the person caught speeding. By printing fines for each infraction, it shows you that in most cases, judges are very consistent in the fines they hand out. How would you feel if you got caught going 70 in a 45 zone, and your neighbor did too, but he only received a fine that was a fraction of yours?

Printing the fines shows that judges don't play favorites. Although they do take extenuating circumstances into account, I think you will notice some fairly consistent fines and jail times being handed down for apples-to-apples convictions. (Whether or not you felt the fine was too much is debatable, but hey, nobody likes paying a $100 fine anyway.)

Another reason is to show you again that local law enforcement is doing their job (much to the chagrin of some of you reading this, I'm sure). But let's face it, while you might not like the fact that you got a speeding ticket, I think we can agree that not having any enforcement isn't the solution.

There are a few tickets that I see once in a while that, had the person not been cited, it wouldn't have represented a threat to public safety. However, if you look at a lot of the tickets, you can see that most of them involve some type of public safety issue, whether it's speeding, DUIs, not having your child buckled in properly, or disorderly conduct. Again, printing the list of convictions shows you that by and large, there are some people out there who are trying to maintain some semblance of public safety and accountability.

I do believe there is some deterrent value, as well, although I'll never know whether this is true or not. But let's face it, nobody likes having their name in the paper, even for a silly speeding ticket.

Does that make you slow down, or get a designated driver? I honestly don't know, but it's worth considering.

Finally, there is the accountability factor. It shows the public that this person — and two dozen others — were held accountable for their actions last week in Justice Court and city courts throughout the valley. You might not like having your name in the paper, but one reason I probably don't get more angry phone calls about it is because most people can acknowledge that yes, they weren't paying attention that day and were probably going a little too fast for the conditions on that stretch of highway, or they were driving with an expired registration for a couple of weeks, etc.

If it's any consolation to you, Leader employees are not exempt from this. My boss and publisher, Dan Drewry, received a speeding ticket on Highway 93 last year, going through that 45 mph zone outside of Mission, and not only did his name appear, but he asked that the words "Leader publisher" appear in front of his name. I would do likewise if my name appeared. Fair is fair, and we want folks to know we can take our medicine, too.

Marriages and divorces

This is a touchy one for me. While we can all agree that printing the names of two folks who tied the knot is usually cause for happiness, I'm well aware that behind most divorces, there's usually two frustrated people who would rather at least have some privacy in what has to be a very trying time in their lives.

However, there is one benefit in letting the community know that they are no longer a legal couple, and that has to do with assets. About once every couple of months, we have an ex-spouse walk through the door and ask to print a legal notice saying they are no longer responsible for their ex's debts, future borrowings, etc.

Often, one spouse has run up a credit card bill that's in both names, or purchased a vehicle, or rented a movie and not returned it, and the other one is sick and tired of getting collection calls or questions about it around town.

At least by printing the list of finalized divorces, we can let folks know that this former couple is no longer sharing assets, and to plan accordingly.

(We usually try to talk the spouse out of wasting their money with a legal ad. If the VISA Corp. has your name listed on the initial credit application, you are still liable for the charges, even if your ex is running up bills in Cancun without you).

Hope that clears some of it up. I'd be curious to hear any feedback, anonymously or otherwise, from readers who have had their name appear in our courts section, and how you feel about that. You can email me at editor@leaderadvertiser.com or call me at 883-4343.