Citizens who file charges against an accused felon may no longer be able to drop those charges without penalty.
On Monday night, Indianola’s city fathers voted unanimously to recommend to the municipal court judge that a $100 fine be levied on any person who initiates charges against some individuals and later changes their mind.
At their last meeting, Chief Edrick Hall had asked the board to consider imposing some type of penalty because people who initiate felony charges and then drop them are costing the city money and valuable man-hours.
Hall explained that deals are sometime struck between the suspect and the victim and money is exchanged after his investigators have begun to probe the case, put in overtime and gone out and rounded up and incarcerated the culprit at the taxpayer’s expense.
“And we don’t get any of that money back,” Hall said.
Hall was asked to consult with other agencies to see how they handled similar actions and bring recommendations back to the board, but Attorney Gary Austin found an existing state law that allows the courts to impose the $100 charge on anyone who causes a search warrant to be issued causing prosecution without reasonable cause or refuses to cooperate after initiating the action.
Austin said the court has the authority to do it. The aldermen simply have to recommend that it be done.
Alderman Gary Fratesi asked Hall how he planned to carry out the process and Hall explained that his investigators would begin by telling any victim up front about the penalty if they were to later drop the charges.
They would have to go to city hall and pay the penalty and acquire a receipt and bring that proof of payment to the police department.
Hall said he wanted to go on record that the fine was not enough, but Austin made it clear that they could not exceed what was written in the statute. He said the judge would have to instruct the clerks to start collecting the penalty. There is already a fee assessed to persons who drop misdemeanor charges.
