Endangering Child Welfare

In the northern stretches of the Fourth Department, a Jefferson County city court judge has recently issued a couple of rulings regarding the sealing of records in EWOC cases. By keeping the records open, even if the plea was to a lesser charge, his goal is to maintain a public record of the original offense as a warning against entrusting children to these persons.

An admirable goal, but the cynical and/or Constitutional rights obsessed amongst us might question whether a plea to another charge should be treated as a plea to the unproven/unadmitted Endangering the Welfare charge.

Public Defenders

The National Legal Aid and DefenderAssociation has released (in 2007 and 2008) fairly in-depth "report cards" of the public defender system in various NY counties. The links are available at the New York State Defenders Association, nysda.org.

Check out Cattaragus County here. One note, though: the magistrate's undertaking request as discussed on page one has been challenged and ended. Unfortunately, the magistrate is still employed by the court system.