Seigel updates Havre City Council on court activities

Havre City Judge Virginia Seigel went before the City Council at their Monday meeting where she spoke about the court and its activities.

Seigel, who first took office in 2013, thanked the council and city Monday for their support. She said that when she first took office, the city court was "a previously crippled court" and she needed a lot of help from the city. That assistance and hard work has allowed the court to move forward, she said.

The number of citations issued is down, and amount of revenue the court is taking in has gone up, Seigel said. Documents provided by Seigel show that in the past three years the court has collected $91,012 in revenue and the number of citations have decreased.

She said it remains to be seen if that trend is associated with the change in the way the court has done business or if it is a fluke.

Seigel said she hopes members in other parts of the city government have a vision for a healthy Havre.

"From my perspective, a healthy Havre looks like a Havre in which we have lower incidences of crime, that we have citizens who are taking responsibility and who are beholden to the court that when the law is broken reparations are made, restitution is paid and recidivism is reduced," she said.  

All that can sometimes be hard to quantify, but, Seigel said, her mission and vision have not changed much.

Seigel's court is one of limited jurisdiction, a misdemeanor court where she has sole jurisdiction over city ordinances for adjudication.

Despite the fact that felony cases do not come before her court, Seigel said her court is important because it is the court of first contact, and a person's first offense is rarely a felony.

"So, if you look in the court records for the names of felons you will find my names because that is usually where they get their start, but the goal is that (appearance) will be their end," she said.  

Seigel said she has heard of some legislation that would remove some jailable offenses from courts of limited jurisdiction.  

"I don't have a problem with that. I don't look at jail as my primary means to punish citizens for bad behavior," she said. "I think of jail as a measure of last resort when public safety is at stake or when there is no improvement or reformation in a defendant's (attitude or actions)."

Seigel also told the court that uses many programs to treat alcohol and drug addiction as an alternatives to incarceration.

Seigel said the biggest challenge and most enjoyable part of her job is figuring how to stop that pattern of criminal behavior, what she calls an ever-changing puzzle.

"It's a challenge, and it is probably why I love my job the most, because it brings me contact with people and there is not one formula that works for every person," she said.

Seigel said that making justice accessible is one of her chief goals, but given that accessibility requires human contact she can only make so much progress, since a recordkeeping mandate and other requirements of the court take her attention.

She credits Cathy Lee, the city court administrator, with updating the court's record-keeping systems. More records are now online and available to people who prosecute felony cases around the state and locally, and it ensures proper steps were taken at trial.

Upgrading the court's record-keeping system is a tremendous accomplishment, Seigel said, but one that is not widely known in the community.

"I think most of the people in our community who interact with the court are just good citizens that have had a bad day because most people who have had an interaction with law enforcement on any given day, even if they're normally just a stellar contributing member of our community, that is usually not the highlight of their day," she said.

Seigel said that Sara Sieglock has been an officer of the court since September. Seiglock works in a reception area of City Hall as a dual-branch employee, executive and judicial.

"Not only is she super-intelligent, hard-working, but she is very good with people," Seigel said. "She represents the city very well, and I am very lucky to have her."  

Seigel said that with Seiglock working for her, City Court has now been able to effectively expand its hours with her accepting money paid for citations and interactings with the public.