Court Monitors Program

Beginnings

The Court Monitors Program was established in 1997 as part of the ongoing campaign of the Santa Fe Rape Crisis & Trauma Treatment Center and the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County to see justice served in cases of sexual violence.

Initially, eight League members, under the leadership coordinator from the Rape Crisis Center, volunteered to attend, observe, and gather data on every case of felony sexual assault charges in Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe Counties.

Over the first four years, Court Monitors, carrying distinctive red clipboards, attended over 111 cases of sexual assault in both juvenile and criminal court. Our team of court observers has grown to 19 and has included men as well as women.

Since 1997, Court Monitors have become a consistent presence in New Mexico's First Judicial District courtrooms, appearing at arraignments, plea hearings, trials, and sentencings. We enthusiastically share with the community our initial findings and comments based upon this court experience.

Why monitor the courts?

Without public awareness, inconsistencies and problems in the courts are easily ignored. This can promote a silent permissivness around the crimes of sexual violence. By being a presence in the courtroom, the Court Monitors Program hopes to hold the justice system accountable for how it processes these crimes.

We monitor the courts in order to:

• Identify where the changes in the law need to be made and to work to bring about those legislative changes.
• Gather data on all aspects of the criminal court system and to use that data to offer practical suggestions and solutions for the improvement of that system.
• Promote public awareness about the criminal justice system and how it delivers justice to both the victim and the accused in cases of sexual violence. By sharing our courtroom experience through newsletters, forums, conferences, and trainings, the Court Monitors Program opens the doors of a judicial process that is rarely seen by the rest of the community, thereby educating voters and potential jurors.
• Maintain a position of neutrality in a process that is, by its nature, adversarial. In doing so, we remain accessible to concerned professionals representing all sides of the legal community for open and frank discussion regarding problems in the criminal justice system and possible solutions.

Become a volunteer: Help balance the scales of justice

Help follow sexual assault and felony domestic violence cases through the criminal justice system from indictment to adjudication.

By being a presence in the courtroom, Monitors can hold the justice system accountable for how it processes these brutal crimes against the children, women and men of our community.

Report on 1998 and 1999

Overview

Most rapes go unreported; of those that are reported, fewer than 20% of the cases go to court.

In the past two years, 131 females and 9 males went to the St. Vincent Hospital and Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center's Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Recovery Team (SANE/SART) unit. All reported being sexually assaulted. Of these victims, 51% we under 18 years of age.

Only 16% of these victims' alleged assailants were indicted in New Mexico's First Judicial District Court in 1998 and 1999. These numbers add local specifics to the national statistics. Most rapes go unreported; of those that are reported, fewer than 20% of the cases go to court. The public, therefore, has little knowledge of the magnitude of the sexual assault problem. We know that without the reporting of a rape and the subsequent prosecution of the alleged assailant, perpetrators who victimize the women, children, and men of our community remain free on our streets and in our homes, without punishment or treatment.

A total of 88 new sex offense cases were opened and monitored by the Court Monitors in 1998 and 1999. This is an average of 3.6 cases per month. In criminal court in 1999, there was a decrease from 1998 of 35% in new cases opened, and in juvenile court there was an increase of 73% in the juvenile cases opened in 1999. At year-end 1999, 28 cases in both criminal and juvenile courts were still in process. In addition, there were 8 open cases with outstanding warrants, meaning the defendants are in flight and have not shown up for the scheduled hearings.

Criminal court (adult defendants)

Jury trials

Twenty criminal cases were closed in 1999. Thirty percent of the cases were brought to trial, an increase of 21% over 1998. In half of the trials the jury brought back a verdict of not guilty on all counts. Another case is scheduled to be retried after the jury found the defendant not guilty on one count and a hung jury on the two remaining counts. In two cases the defendants were found guilty on all counts, one of whom was sentenced to life because it included a murder in the first-degree charge. The other defendant was sentenced to 15 years (with a suspension of 13 years, 11 months).

Nature of charges

Of the original charges filed in the indictments, 21% were for 1st degree Criminal Sexual Penetration, 36% were for 2nd and 3rd degree Criminal Sexual Penetration, and 43% were for 3rd and 4th degree Criminal Sexual Contact.

Plea bargaining

Of the remaining 14 closed cases, 43% were resolved by plea agreements where the original charges were lowered. Two of these plea agreements dropped the sexual felony charges in favor of lower charges of a nonsexual nature, such as Contributing to the Deliquency of a Minor or False Imprisonment, which are 4th degree felony charges. In 29% of the cases the defendant pled No Contest or used an Alford Plea.

Victim age

Eighty percent of the victims in the adjudicated guilty cases were children under the age of 18, one-third of these children were under the age of 13. The remaining 20% were adult women.

Defendant age

Sixty percent of the defendants in the adjudicated guilty cases were between the ages of 18 and 30. The remaining 40% were between 31 and 40 years old.

Sentencing

Discounting the four acquittals, the potential sentencing for all sex-crime-related charges was 339 years, plus one life term. After plea-bargainings and trials, the potential sentencing for the 16 cases was reduced to 145.5 years, plus one life term. The actual sentences imposed totaled 114.5 years, plus one life term. Out of these sentences the defendants were given 71.5 years incarceration, plus one life term, with the balance in probation time. Given that one defendant was incarcerated for 40 years and two others for a combined 15 years, that means that 13 defendants were sentenced to an average of 1.3 years incarceration.

Juvenile court

Seventeen juvenile cases were closed in 1999, an increase of 89% over 1998. There were 4 cases dismissed and no trials in juvenile court during 1999.

Nature of charges

Of the original charges filed in the petitions, 50% were 1st or 2nd degree Criminal Sexual Penetration and 50% were 3rd degree Criminal Sexual Contact.

Plea bargaining

Fifty-nine percent of the cases were resolved by plea agreements where the original charges were lowered. Four of these plea agreements dropped the sexual felony charges in favor of lower charges of a nonsexual nature, such as Battery or Kidnapping. In 46% of the cases the defendant pled No Contest.

Victim age

Sixty-nine percent of the victims in the adjudicated guilty cases were children under the age of 13; the remaining 31% were between 13 and 17 years of age.

Defendant age

Thirty-eight percent of the defendants in the adjudicated guilty cases were 16 and 17 years old. The remaining 62% were 12, 13, and 14 years old.

Sentencings

None of the respondents were incarcerated. Fifty-four percent received 2 years of probation, with the remaining 46% receiving a 1-year probation or a Consent Decree of 6 months plus 6 months. All of the respondents were evaluated for sex offender issues and 62% were sentenced to the Santa Fe Rape Crisis & Trauma Treatment Center PARE (Preventing Abuse Re-enactment) sexual offender treatment program or private therapy as a condition of probation.

Accomplishments

Going to Court

Since 1997, Court Monitors have attended 72 cases involving sexual offenses in Juvenile Court.

Recruiting and training volunteers

• Since 1997, we have held four intensive training sessions for new volunteers. Professors, judges, the staff of the District Attorney's Office and the Public Defender Department, as well as the staff of the Rape Crisis Center have assisted us in these trainings.
• In 1998, we produced an official volunteer manual. Court monitoring programs from around the country have requested our manual, and it has received positive feedback from these advocacy groups.
• We have conducted site visits at the STOP and CARE sexual offender treatment programs at the Las Vegas (New Mexico) Medical Center, and visited the sex offender treatment program at the New Mexico Boys' School in Springer. Additional meetings have been held with Juvenile Probation, the Domestic Violence Victim's Advocates Program, Adult Probation and Parole, as well as with staff of the Public Defender Department and the District Attorney's Office and the Rape Crisis Center.

Networking with the legal and therapeutic community

Representatives of the Court Monitoring Program participate with several legal and activist organizations that work with victims and sex offenders. Court Monitors attend the regular meetings of Sex Offender Round Table (SORT) and The NM Network of Treatment Providers to contribute our court experience to the issues of victim and sex offender therapy and laws. Currently we are part of a group within SORT and the Network of Treatment Providers working on educating the justice committee of the New Mexico State Legislature on issues regarding Megan's Law (Public Law 104-145) and sex offender treatment in New Mexico and other states.

Informing the community

• Articles involving our activities and positions have appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Albuquerque Journal North, and KRQE Channel 13.
• To keep the community informed about the prosecution of sexual violence in New Mexico's First Judicial District, The Clipboard is being sent to over 2000 people and agencies, including legislators, activists, government and judicial personnel, therapists, and community centers and libraries.
• In November 1998, we co-sponsored with the League of Women Voters a Forum in which the panel included judges, prosecutors, public defenders, a victim advocate, and a sex-offender-treatment therapist. A video, "Rape – Another Act of Violence," was produced from this event by Court Monitor Kee Meyer and has been shown throughout the state.

Organizing the national court-monitoring effort

In October 1999, we initiated and hosted the first national conference of court monitoring programs in the country. Forty participants representing nineteen programs came to Plaza Resolana de Santa Fe for a three-day round-table discussion. Along with our mentor program and co-sponsor, WATCH, we arranged an intensive agenda that covered all aspects of the start-up, organizing, and funding of court monitoring programs. As a result of the success of the event, the Court Monitors Program and WATCH planned a follow-up conference on a larger basis for the year 2001. We're grateful.

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