An effort to promote Baltimore circuit courthouse efficiency is drawing warnings from officials who say the initiative will stress the already stretched resources of the city sheriff’s office, which provides courtroom security.
Circuit judges currently handle either criminal cases or civil cases, with sheriff’s deputies assigned to do security only in criminal matters. Starting next month, judges will be assigned to hear both civil and criminal cases.
With more judges potentially handling criminal cases on any given day, the sheriff’s office will have to assign more deputies to the courthouses, pulling them from other functions, said Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
“This is more challenging because we have to move people from other units to supplement manpower-wise,” Tapp-Harper said. “When you look at the totality of that, you can be talking about 50 courtrooms on a daily basis. How are we going to deal with that?”
Tapp-Harper said there are currently 103 deputy sheriffs.
To keep up with the courthouse demands, she said, the office plans to pull deputies from the street who are completing other duties such as serving evictions and summonses for child support.
The office already has a backlog for evictions, she noted.
“Evictions we are scheduling right now six weeks out,” a timeframe that will only increase with the new demands, she said. The office must wait 30 days to serve an eviction once it has been filed.
Terri Charles, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Judiciary, said the judge’s docket changes were not implemented to address any backlogs in cases but simply to make the court more efficient.
She did not immediately respond to a follow-up question over the weekend about whether the judiciary took into account sheriff’s office resources.
Circuit Administrative Judge Judge W. Michel Pierson, who is leaving at the end of the year, declined to comment.
The shift — and ensuing concerns — come just after a defendant threw a metal water pitcher at Chief Baltimore Circuit Judge Wanda Heard during a sentencing last week, striking her forehead and injuring her. Heard remained conscious but immediately recessed the courtroom to seek medical attention. The defendant was taken into custody and later charged, officials said.
The attack commenced after Heard handed down to the convicted rapist what amounts to a life sentence.
Baltimore City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, chair of the council’s public safety committee, said the judiciary made the changes in an effort to process cases more efficiently.
“Right now, the dockets are broken down between civil and criminal. Some are larger than others," Schleifer said. “Cases are not being heard as quickly as they should be; therefore the courts decided to make them interchangeable to streamline everything and make them more efficient.”
But Schleifer said he’s concerned about the additional burdens for the sheriff’s office. He’d like to see more deputies hired and salaries increased to attract candidates.
“Our deputies have done a tremendous job at assisting our crime-fighting efforts,” he said, adding that they have a number of responsibilities. “It’s time that we as a city help them to continue to help us.”
Tapp-Harper said sheriff’s deputies have a starting salary of $41,000 and a cap of $65,138, with 20 step raises in between.
The Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office has a starting minimum of $37,900 but can rise to $68,000 after 10 years, and up to $83,400 after 30 years at the highest grade.
Any increase of Baltimore city pay would depend on the mayor earmarking more money for the office, an effort Schleifer voiced support for. Lester Davis, a spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, declined to comment on the sheriff’s office salaries.
The sheriff’s office has a higher workload compared with other jurisdictions, Schleifer said, and is compounded because over 50% of the city population are renters, creating a need to serve more evictions.
In January, Tapp-Harper said, eight new recruits are scheduled to begin academy training, but that takes six months to complete.
Officials from the union that represents sheriff’s deputies could not be reached for comment over the weekend.
Baltimore County Chief Administrative Judge Kathleen Gallogly Cox said each jurisdiction is different, but many of the larger jurisdictions have rotation policies to try to “move their cases the quickest.”
Six county judges are dedicated to family court, but the rest are available to hear any type of case, she said.
Cox said court scheduling requires a balance of keeping judges with expertise assigned to specific cases but also making sure they are free to meet the demands of the dockets that day.
”The majority of this work does not get preassigned," she said.