New Assistant Schuyler County Attorney Named

Watkins Glen, NY--Vinton Bovier Stevens, an Elmira native, has been appointed an Assistant County Attorney.

The appointment was unanimously approved by the Schuyler County Legislature at its February 11 meeting.

As an Assistant County Attorney, Stevens will join Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman in representing the County in civil litigation, family court prosecutions and related matters.

Stevens has been an attorney since 1999. Prior to joining the County Attorney’s office, he practiced law in New York City, Chemung and Tompkins Counties.

In addition to Getman and Stevens, the Schuyler County Attorney’s staff consists of attorney Kristin Hazlitt, of Hector, as well as secretaries Maryann Friebis and Brandy Bower.

Stevens is a graduate of Notre Dame High School, in Elmira, and attended college at the University of Rochester. He is a 1998 graduate of Temple University School of Law.

In addition to his attorney duties, Stevens serves as Vice Flotilla Commander of the USCG Auxiliary Flotilla, and as a member of Immaculate Conception Parish in Ithaca.

The County Attorney is the legal advisor to all county officials and prosecutes and defends civil actions by and against the county. In addition, the County Attorney prosecutes family court cases involving child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency and child support violations.

Court Closings: Tuesday February 12

According to the New York State Office of Court Administration Website, "NY State Courts, except for criminal arraignments, will be closed on Tuesday., Feb. 12th."

Zombies 2.0: $9 Million announced in grants for communities dealing with vacant and abandoned properties

New York State officials have announced “Zombies 2.0,” the expansion of a grant initiative to address the growing statewide issue of “zombie homes”-- vacant and abandoned homes that are not maintained during a prolonged foreclosure proceeding.

This program is intended to provide up to $9 million in grants to New York State municipalities to address housing vacancy and blight. The grants will provide funds to municipalities to increase housing code enforcement, track and monitor vacant properties, and bolster legal enforcement capacity to ensure property lenders comply with local and state law.

Grants are expected to be awarded in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 based on scale and severity.

Earlier grants under the Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative provided nearly $13 million in grants to local municipalities. The 2019 grant will allow previous recipients to continue their work or will give first-time grantees the opportunity to secure funding to support their property clean-up efforts.

Applications are due Friday, March 8, 2019. Awards are expected to be announced in April.

For more on the “Zombie property” initiative, click here.

Schuyler officials taking extra steps to help property owners avoid tax foreclosure

Watkins Glen—Over the next few weeks, some tax delinquent Schuyler County residents will be getting a personal letter from County Treasurer Holley Sokolowski and County Attorney Steven Getman.

The letter is a personal plea: Please pay your back property taxes before February 20.

That’s the date after which, if taxes are not paid, a Schuyler County Court Judge may enter a judgment ordering the property seized and sold at public auction.

In an attempt to prevent that, Sokolowski and Getman are sending the letters, with handwritten notes on the envelopes, to approximately eighty property owners who still haven’t paid their back taxes.

“The letter reminds them of the deadline and provides options to avoid the foreclosure,” Sokolowski said. “Eligible property owners can pay the full amount due or arrange for an installment agreement.”

“It's the job of the county to collect taxes, but the main focus here is keeping people on their property and in their homes," Sokolowski said.

The letters also mention some of the services county tax dollars support, including law enforcement, public health, roads and bridges and social services.

The letters. Getman said, are based on research that found people are more likely to respond to personal letters and handwritten notes than to form documents.

“A form letter may look like junk mail and get tossed,” Getman explained. “Handwriting shows the letter deserves more attention and sends a message that this is important.”

The letters are only the latest step in the county’s efforts to collect overdue taxes while keeping people in their homes.

According to Sokolowski, each November, the county mails out Foreclosure Notices and Petitions to properties with back tax liens from the prior year. Those notices go out by both regular and certified mail to property owners, mortgage holders and others with identified interests in the delinquent properties.

“The county also publishes a list of the delinquent taxes in two local newspapers and, in certain cases, posts warnings on the properties that they could be sold for back taxes,” she noted.

Only after each of those steps occurs, Getman explained, does the court enter a judgment foreclosing on the property.

After the court issues the foreclosure, the properties, if unredeemed, are sold at a public auction.

“The law requires the county to take every step to enforce the property tax laws and ensure that everyone pays their fair share,” Getman said.

"This is really just another way to do that, above and beyond what the law requires, while making sure we're keeping people in their homes and businesses."

As County Treasurer, Sokolowski is the chief fiscal officer of county government and enforcement officer for unpaid property tax liens.

As County Attorney, Getman is the chief legal advisor for county government and responsible for the prosecution and defense of civil actions brought by and against the county, including tax matters.

Volunteer for children: CASA training scheduled

A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer is a citizen who receives special training in advocacy and is temporarily appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in the Family Courts of Chemung, Steuben, and Schuyler counties.

Invest your time to help the children of the Southern Tier. CASA has set the following dates for the next volunteer training class:

Intro/Orientation: 9 - 10 a.m. February 27

Class Dates: 9 - 1 p.m. March 6, 13, 20, and 27

Location: 102 Chemung Street, Painted Post, NY

Refreshments are provided.

Call the CASA office at 607-936-CASA to receive an application packet and reserve a seat in this series of training classes. You may also apply online here.

Cuomo's bail reform plan causes controversy

Officials and others weigh in on Governor Cuomo's bail reform plan

As part of his renewed push to reform the criminal justice system, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing to eliminate cash bail for minor offenses.

Some on the law enforcement side said the proposal is not a well thought out plan, but others see it as a way to level the playing field for people accused of minor crimes.

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While not entirely against it, Defense Attorney Robert King of Robert King Law Firm admits the plan isn't foolproof. “There’s too many times that judges are setting too high of bail. There’s too many times where trials are postponed too long. I think the governor's heart is certainly in the right place,” said King. “The law is not black-and-white, so to say this is what you have to do all the time there’s going to be times where it’s inappropriate.”

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Gates Police Chief Jim VanBrederode said without bail suspects won't have a reason to come back to court and that could delay a case, and add to the backlog that already exists.

According to VanBrederode, there are nearly 830 outstanding warrants in Gates along and many date back a decade. “Justice delayed is justice denied, because behind every crime there is a victim. It's really not fair to the victim when the cases end up at a standstill,” he said. “It's going to create a problem with the criminal justice system; it's going to slow the system down even more and it's just going to create a bigger backlog in our opinion.”

In at least one other state, a similar bail plan backfired on the defendants:

Last year Maryland's courts approved changes to the state's bail system, instructing judges not to deny defendants the possibily of release if they were too poor to afford a cash bail demand. The intent was that defendants be jailed prior to trial only if they were flight risks or a danger to the community, not simply because they didn't have enough money.

Unfortunately, at least in Baltimore, the plan is backfiring. WBAL-TV, the local NBC affiliate, reports that the number of people detained in jail is rising, even as the number of arrests is dropping. Comparing March 2017 to March 2018, the station found that the average number of people jailed each day jumped 31 percent, from 655 to 856...

What's happening is easy to explain: Instead of making cash bail affordable, Baltimore's judges are choosing not to grant it at all in many cases where they previously would have.

The above article also touches upon the idea that eliminating cash bail for minor offenses could constitute an another "unfunded mandate," forcing counties to expand pretrial services and monitoring programs.

Martin Luther King Day

Ronald Reagan:

"Each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us -- if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, "All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning. . . land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

(President Reagan, Coretta Scott King, Bob Dole and others at the signing ceremony for HR 3706 making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. 11/2/1983)

Ovid Town Board reorganizes, makes appointments for 2019

The Town Board of the Town of Ovid made a number of appointments at their meeting Wednesday (January 9, 2019):

Town Board, Town of Ovid, S... by on Scribd

Former “Big pharma” CEO pleads guilty to opioid kickback scheme: Schuyler County among area counties suing ‘big pharma.’

The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics Inc., one of the pharmaceutical companies being sued by Schuyler County and other area municipalities over prescription painkillers, pleaded guilty on Wednesday (January 9) to participating in a nationwide scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication.

Michael Babich, who resigned as the company’s CEO in 2015, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy and mail fraud charges.  The federal government alleges that, from 2012 to 2015, Babich and others conspired to bribe doctors to prescribe Subsys, a prescription opiate for managing severe pain in cancer patients. 

Insys is one of the big pharmaceutical companies being sued by various New York State municipalities, including Schuyler County.  In May of last year, Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman filed a nearly 250-page Summons and Complaint for damages to the County arising out of the fraudulent and negligent marketing and distribution of opiates in the County. 

“This plea is potential evidence to Schuyler County,” Getman said.  “A criminal conviction establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and, in certain circumstances, can establish civil liability for fraudulent activity.”

“Under the plea, Insys paid doctors kickbacks in the form of fees to participate in speaker programs that were actually sham events,” Getman noted.  “The allegation that Insys created a sham ‘speaker program’ is part of our complaint.”

“Schuyler County’s lawsuit will move forward to seek reimbursement for expenses related to the opioid crisis as well as to provide the County with financial aid to fight addiction, overdoses, drug-related crimes and drug deaths,” Getman stated.

In 2017, the County Legislature voted to retain the firm of Napoli Shkolnik to work with Getman, as special counsel, to bring an action against the manufacturers and distributers of prescription opiates for damages to the County. 

According to Schuyler County Administrator Tim O’Hearn, that lawsuit was filed at no risk to the County, as Napoli Shkolnik will work on contingency basis that will cover all costs associated with the lawsuit.

“By going forward with litigation, the County Legislature hopes to lessen the burden to taxpayers and hold manufacturers and distributors responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic,” O’Hearn said.

Schuyler County is one of several New York municipalities filing lawsuits against the manufacturers and distributors of opioid pain killers.  At least 14 counties across New York are suing pharmaceutical companies for what they are claiming are deceptive marketing practices.

Also, in February 2018, New York State officials filed a lawsuit against Insys alleging that it deceptively promoted Subsys for unsafe uses and violated state law by downplaying drug’s addictive risks.

Babich's plea was made in Federal Court in Boston.

The counties' lawsuit is pending in Suffolk County, New York.

A complete copy of Schuyler County’s Summons and Complaint can be found here.

New report questions effectiveness of supervised drug consumption facilities

From the Washington Post:

(E)xisting research does not establish that drug users who access SDCFs are less likely to die of an overdose over time, or that opening an SDCF lowers a community’s rate of drug overdose fatalities...

The report found that many people use SDCFs intermittently, but do not adopt the safer use practices from SDCFs when using outside of it. An individual who injects heroin in the SDCF one day may thus avoid a fatal overdose that particular day, but have one the next day outside the SDCF. More importantly, no one knows whether becoming an SDCF user leads to longer drug use careers than do other interventions (e.g., methadone maintenance). If by making injection drug use safer and more positive (e.g., being surrounded by supportive people), SDCFs even modestly reduce the likelihood of an individual stopping injection use in the next week, or month, or year, the benefit of lower risk SDCF drug use now can be canceled out by an increased number of drug use episodes later.

Read the complete article here. Read the underlying report here.