by Rachel Hunter
The Fowler Town Council is discussing the hiring of a court security officer.
Town of Fowler Supervisor Rick Newvine at the March 13 meeting of the Town of Gouverneur Council said that Town of Fowler Justice Timothy Knowlton has requested a court security officer. Faithful readers of the Gouverneur Tribune Press will recall that a similar discussion was held recently in Gouverneur, and led to the hiring of a court security guard or the Town of Gouverneur Justice Court.
Supervisor Newvine told the town council that he had already started to research the matter. “I called our insurance company,” he said. “There’s no extra premium or anything but they were concerned about his training and stuff like that. Once they know we want to hire a retired state trooper, I think they’ll be fine.” Supervisor Newvine then gave the floor to the Hon. Tim Knowlton, who told the town council he had not approached anyone until he had the “graces of the board to do it.”
“The person that Gouverneur has, because that person is a retired state trooper, he is sort of grandfathered in, and doesn’t need the official training. He falls within the guidelines of a New York State security guard. So, that is basically all taken care of. I did have a very long conversation with Judge Youngs from Gouverneur. Judge Dann was one of the forces that was behind that. Basically, just because of the way things are in the world nowadays, we aren’t left alone here in Northern New York. There’s just some craziness in the world. I know Judge Young said that after only two months of having him there, they are very thankful. It sets a tone having him there.
“Rick had asked me to list just some of the jobs that they do, and I came up with 10 of them – not really an official list, but it is what I got from Judge Youngs and doing a little bit of research by myself. One of the biggest ones though is that they check people in and out. They make sure that everyone is signed in, and they basically keep any law and order that needs to go on in the building. That person would also stand in between the defendant, the attorney and the bench. Any paper that gets handed to a defendant, and there is a paper chase, with them between them, that really eliminates any chance for them approaching the bench and anything negative happening. If you have ever been to the courts in Canton, if you’ve been on jury duty or anything, it’s the same way there. No one gets close to a judge up there. Again, with all the craziness that is going on in the world…
“One of the other things is that, whenever we have mediation, that means Attorney Stefan Dufresne, if there is an eviction or any civil matter, before they come in front of me, they actually go into the historian’s office as that is our mediation room, and they haggle it out. Ninety-nine percent of the time it is handled in there and they come to a conclusion and either something is dropped or typically it is, “Okay, I’ll agree to pay.” We have had situations where Stefan Dufresne who is a big man had to get a little snotty with people because they thought it was ridiculous. They thought it was a waste of time. So this security officer would be in there monitoring that too. You have people haggling over hundreds or thousands of dollars, so tempers could tend to flare. Again, we don’t have a metal detector. I can only imagine what a metal detector would cost, plus we would have to have someone to run that. I am not going to be able to on a bench, running the court, and running a metal detector as people are coming in and out for two hours at a time. Obviously, (Court Clerk Irma Ashley) is back and forth in the office, in and out, in and out. I don’t think it is a job for her either. So that is another thing that their presence does during court times…”
Supervisor Newvine then asked the Hon. Tim Knowlton the list of 10 job duties a Town of Fowler Court Security Officer might have.
“The 10 jobs are to inspect and patrol the premise before and during court. Most people are here by noon and our civil cases start at 1:30 p.m., so it could go into 2 p.m., but they would do that, monitor the property, the entrance, and along with that, I know one of the things that I had done there was to monitor the surveillance cameras. I’ll give you a quick update on that. (Office of Court Administration) still has not gotten back to us on the JCAP grant that we spent a ton of time on. We got bids. It was supposed to be in by the end of December… through the grapevine I am hearing that we should hear by the end of March, so maybe by April, May or June is really what I am looking at, which is really sad because of our security system upstairs.
“The other day I said to Irma, “Wow, look at that monitor.” And it was completely black. You couldn’t even see anybody. You could hear people walking up the stairs, and you had to get up real close to look at them. It is just an antiquated system. So they would monitor those also. Again, the big one, they would authorize the people into it. They would report suspicious behaviors and happenings. Obviously, being a retired police officer, if that is who is to be hired, they are very good at that. Those are things that they are trained to see. They would secure exits, doors and windows. Again, monitor those surveillance cameras. The monitors that we have asked the state to purchase for us are nice, large monitors. There will be one in Irma’s office where my desk is, and one out in the courtroom that they would be able to watch. Like the other night, I was in here at 1 a.m., and I waited and waited and waited. I thought I heard a car. Again, with the monitor, I didn’t know what was going on. And then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and I looked and it was the troopers with the defendant. That is really the only way I knew that they were even here.
“Another big one, they would deliver documents from the bench to the defendants and attorneys. They would be in charge of courtroom behavior. Again, the one trial that we did have here, which was Mayor Skelly from Ogdensburg. I had to request from Sheriff Bigwarfe for him to send over a deputy that day. We all know that the County is short of people, short of COs, but he was very gracious and said, “Yeah, I am going to send one over for that, because that could have been a debacle. But I think with that Sheriff’s Deputy up there, and I made it very clear when we started the trial, that we were not going to tolerate any childish behavior or anything… things went really well that day. I think that is a great example of what they will provide.
“Again, they would be present during courtroom mediations and they would monitor all situations and know when to contact police services. We had a gentleman that was to appear in my court. I got an email the morning of court that there was a felony warrant put out for this gentleman by Judge Storie, and if he showed up, would they please call the police. Well, this was a pretty dangerous guy an lo and behold, he showed up – and Irma and I are looking at the TV monitors because I said, “Hey Irma, I think that’s our man.” And she said, “I don’t think it is.” I said, “I think it is.” And she said, “No, it is not.” So when he showed up, I said, “Excuse me sir, what’s your name, could you please sign in? He told me his name and I had to give like baseball signals so Irma would call the police. She called the troopers and they were able to come right up. If that guy had said, “Why do you need to know?” It could have turned bad. He could have bolted or whatever, and the crime that he committed… I am not going to quote Sheriff Bigwarfe… it was not pretty heinous, it was heinous. And so the troopers showed up, and once I was done with him, he turned around and it was almost comical because he said, “Why are you guys here?” And they just said, “Put your hands up.” And they put the cuffs right on him. It was beautiful. He got carted right out of here.”
Supervisor Newvine then asked, “How many hours are you going to need them?” The Hon. Tim Knowlton said, “Well, I believe that the person that Gouverneur is hired is at a minimum of 16 hours per month. I think he gets paid $30 per hour… If it were four hours, you’re only looking at $120 per month.” Knowlton said that the person the Town of Fowler is seeking to hire has his own firearm, taser, bulletproof vest, etc. “I don’t know if he would need something that says Town of Fowler Court Security Officer, but I would think that would be very minimal,” he said.
Supervisor Newvine then asked if Hon. Knowlton had made any progress on getting a court security assessment at the Town of Fowler Hall. “I contacted the Office of Court Administration, and I said, “I would like a security assessment done.” But I don’t think anyone has ever been up here. They don’t know where we are up here. And then all of a sudden I get a text last Friday that said, “If you want that assessment done, I have to contact the Fourth Judicial District judge in Albany and I have to request it in writing on our letterhead from the Courts.” I said, “We would like that assessment done.”
Supervisor Newvine said, “That’s good. I think that is the next step, don’t you?” “Yeah,” Knowlton said in response.
Supervisor Newvine then asked, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Town of Fowler Deputy Supervisor Karen Simmons asked, “Are you thinking about hiring the same person that they are hiring in Gouverneur?” The Hon. Knowlton said, “I know the person. They love him. He is a tremendous presence… I didn’t really want to throw anything at him. But I will touch base. If I have the good graces of the council, I will certainly go to him and say, “Is this something you are interested in?” If not, maybe he knows of somebody… again, it is not like it is a full-time job. There are probably a lot of those guys that are out there and looking to pick up a little something on the side maybe.”
Supervisor Newvine said, “I think you should. I think everybody is in favor of this. If you want to contact him and see if he is interested, then we’ll know where we should go with it.”
“I will,” Knowlton said.
The Hon. Tim Knowlton then gave the Town of Fowler Council his monthly report for February 2023. “December was slow. January was really slow, and February was super slow,” he said. “There was a total of 15 tickets. But again, we started off March with a bang the other night…” There was some discussion before the Hon. Knowlton concluded his report with the following statement: “The police did make a really nice arrest the other night. The only thing I can say about it is it is really scary with the bail reform... what the person was accused of, he walked out of here, and it was mind-boggling to me. Your hands are tied, and your just like it is a non-qualifying offense. There is absolutely nothing that you can do. Something similar, there was a guy last summer I believe in Massena that had 600 bags of heroin and fentanyl. The guy got arrested, caught with it all, and was released on his own recognizance. That’s basically all you can do… So if anyone is talking with you about bail reform, it is really sad. You have to almost commit murder or bioterrorism or some pretty heinous crimes to be put in jail or be a convicted felon and commit another felony, then it is automatic.”
Town of Fowler Councilman Lynn Bishop said, “If we weren’t at a board meeting, I’d tell you what I think of it.”
There was no further discussion.
The next meeting of the Town of Fowler Council will be held on April 10, 6 p.m., at the Fowler Town Hall, 87 Little York Road, Fowler. For more information, call 315-287-0045 or visit FowlerNY.com.