FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2016

Are Probationers Being Ripped Off?

This week, our Muckraker was turning over rocks trying to find out why people on probation in Kentucky seem to be taken advantage of, only to find another Muckraker had already been there and done that, especially after Bluegrass Bureau Chief Ken CamBoo showed him another award-winning expose by Jim McNair at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting titled “Inside Kentucky’s Unregulated Private Probation Industry.”

Sometimes, small-time offenders agree to a plea deal that keeps them out of jail, and wind up paying a few hundred dollars in fines and court fees. But in some counties, they also get to pay the cost of their probation, where every month they get socked with a $25 monitoring fee to a company that serves as a privatized probation agency.

“Individuals charged then convicted of a petty offense in County A may have to pay a lot more money than someone who’s similarly situated in County B, just by the sheer fact that County A utilizes private probation companies,” said Bill Sharp, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

“We take care of our own,” said Kenton County Chief District Judge Ann Ruttle. “Court costs are enough for people. I can’t add to it.”

But there were 38,780 Kentucky misdemeanor cases that ended with probated jail sentences in 2015. How many of those went to private companies like Kentucky Alternative Programs is anyone’s guess because no one keeps track.

“They’re a private company,” said Boone County District Judge Jeffrey Smith. “How they administer that sliding scale, that question might be best asked of them. I’m not there.”

“If you’re asking me if I’m 100 percent certain that all of the information given here is correct, I cannot answer that,” said Campbell County Chief District Judge Gregory Popovich.

Jim McNair’s   Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting says State Supreme Court rules allow judges to assign probationers to private companies “only when” no probation officers, nonprofits or volunteers are available. Popovich, the Campbell County judge, said he thinks he began using KAP in the late 1990s. He said it is too “unwieldy” supervising probationers himself.

“I have never had a problem with them,” Popovich said of KAP. “I think they’ve done an excellent job, because if I heard anything bad, I’d act real quickly.”

Popovich’s connection with KAP extends beyond the courtroom, though. Going back to 2004, the judge has received more than $2,300 in election campaign contributions from KAP officers and directors. In 2014, KAP Vice President Matthew Seyfried hosted a Popovich fundraiser at his house in Alexandria, and he and KAP founder Mann contributed a combined $954 for catering. Popovich said he could not recall how much money he received from that fundraiser.

Screenshot of Campbell County Chief District Judge Gregory Popovich’s Facebook page

“As far as what monies I’ve got, you’d have to ask the campaign treasurer because I really don’t know,” he said. “You obviously know more about campaign contributions I’ve received than I do.”

Popovich denied showing favoritism to KAP over its competition, and Mann said the contributions were “absolutely not” intended to ensure a continuing stream of business from Campbell County District Court. The county’s other district judge, Karen Thomas, likes the KAP service because it saves people a return trip to court. She has received no campaign money from KAP employees.

While KAP banks on business from Campell County, a Newport-based competitor, Commonwealth Mediation Services — a nonprofit — claims that it gets just a trickle of referrals. Company President Melinda Sprinkle, a former KAP employee, said she started CMS in 2007. She is frustrated by her inability to get business from the court.

There appears to be a lot about Campbell County District Judge Gregory Popovich in Muckraker McNair’s Report [READ MORE HERE] He’s been a judge for two decades, but keeps running afoul of the judicial ethics police in Kentucky. Here we see he’s taken campaign money from a private probation company that appears to enjoy a monopoly on referrals from his court. 

Meanwhile, Fearless Fishwrapper Scott Wartman says Popovich is fighting for his job amid allegations of misconduct, after he received a letter from the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission in October with 54 allegations of misconduct the agency was investigating (Complaint: Local judge ‘undignified and discourteous’)

It sounds like Scott might have a bit of the Muckraker in himself, too, although from much of what The Blower has heard, Judge Popo is a good man who calls ‘em like he sees ‘em. It’s just the last bastion of NoKY Dems and their RINO buddies out to get him. One DemocRAT even says this looks like “Politics at its worst. Sour grapes from his opponents!”