Just weeks after sending a letter pleading with the town board to focus safety in Southold Town justice court, court officer Donato Cappabianca is resigning.
The board is slated to voted on Cappabianca’s resignation, which will take place on or before December 31, at Tuesday’s town board meeting.
Also this week, Southold Town Justice William Price spoke out to SoutholdLOCAL about the lack of security in the town’s justice court.
“Safety is a serious issue, especially for people in the gallery,” he said. “The severity of the issue was brought to the forefront some years ago when a questionnaire was given to all employees within Town Hall as to what dangers they perceived — and they perceived that the justice court on Fridays was extremely dangerous.”
Eventually, court dates were split so that traffic violation cases were seen by town justices on Mondays, with criminal cases slated for Fridays.
“That has helped,” Price said. “Before that, I would have a person with an expired inspection sticker sitting next to a person charged with some form of domestic violence. This separated the less serious from the more serious offenses.”
When asked if he has concerns for his own well-being, Price said, “Of course I worry about my own safety, and I worry about the safety of other people on the bench with me. I worry primarily about the people out in the gallery, because they’re sitting there completely unprotected. Safety is a major issue.”
Last week, one week after Cappabianca cried out about justice court conditions he deemed unsafe and possibly deadly, the town board headed to Southampton’s justice court in Hampton Bays to seek ideas and solutions.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said Councilman James Dinizio and Councilwoman Jill Doherty are town board liaisons to a new committee formed to examine the lack of security in the town’s justice court.
The group was formed after a letter was sent to the board by Cappabianca regarding security concerns — including “six to eight knives” he said he’d taken from defendants standing in the courtroom.
Dinizio said the town board “is looking at the court complex in Southampton because it has become clear that we need to do a better job with safety. We have heard complaints from the judges, the current court officer and some workers in Town Hall. It became clear to me that something needed to be done when we were conducting interviews with people interested in the new court clerk’s position. Nearly all commented on the lack of security. The trip to Southampton is just to get some ideas as to how a proper court is run.”
Doherty said the group had its first meeting, discussing both “short term and long term solutions. In the short term we are changing locks on some doors and looking into getting a grant to pay for a metal detector.”
When investigating a grant in the past, the town had been told that three court officers are needed, Doherty said. “We are working with civil service to create two more court officer positions. The long-term solution we are talking about is possibly putting a separate building behind Town Hall as opposed to upgrading the meeting hall to proper safety practices. Southampton has done this so we want to look at that building to get some ideas. This is just the beginning of the discussion of how best to serve the town and the safety of the employees and the public while operating our justice court.”
Cappabianca has said he believed the lack of security could prove life-threatening at Southold Town justice court, a facility that sees a high volume of cases each year — and the only town justice court on the East End without a metal detector.
Cappabianca, a former senior special agent for the U.S. Customs Service and a former law enforcement officer for 27 years, assigned to U.S. Secret Service protection detail, said he believes he is qualified to address the issue of security in the courtroom.
During his time at Southold Town justice court, Cappabianca said he’s taken “approximately six to eight knives” from defendants standing directly before the judge and right next to the assistant district attorney.
“Two of these knives were classified as illegal weapons and resulted in the arrest of the owners. I was only able to observe the knives because the owners failed to completely conceal them,” he wrote. “I could not even begin to venture a guess as to how many other knives and other weapons are concealed and carried into and out of the courtroom, on any given date, by both defendants and visitors to the court.”
Defendants, Cappabianca said, “are from all walks of life” and some, even gang members.
There are no security checks of bags, he added, and no metal detector at Town Hall, where justice court is held.
“There are too many scenarios and reasons why people will commit a violent act,” Cappabianca wrote. “The town has been extremely fortunate that no acts of violence have yet occurred in the courtroom.”
Over the past three years, Cappabianca said he has experienced “two to three incidents with defendants that could have easily gone from verbal to physical.” He added, “I believe the town is being short-sighted regarding the courtroom security. One unfortunate incident in the courtroom could result in physical bodily harm or, in the worse case scenario, death to one or more individuals” such as innocent bystanders or court personnel.
Cappabianca said if the town were to secure a magnometer, or metal detector, “a significant threat to security could be diminished.”
He added that he did not know of any other court that handles the volume of cases Southold does, without a magnometer manned by a court officer. “The cost of the equipment and the salary of for an additional court officer cannot compare to the cost of just one violent incident in the courtroom,” he said. Cappabianca added he hoped the matter would be addressed in the coming budget season.
Russell said last week that the town board had convened a working group that will identify the needs. “We will implement a capital budget to make the upgrades,” he said.
When asked if a magnometer would be included in those plans, Russell responded, “Any improvements needed will be included in the plan.”
At Tuesday’s town board work session, Doherty said while the town was exploring grant options for the magnometer, other options included purchasing used equipment for use by the town.
And at Tuesday’s town board meeting, the board voted unanimously to authorize the justice court to submit a grant application to the New York State Unified Court System requesting a grant for the maximum amount available; at the work session the board said the funds would be used for security upgrades.
Those concerned for safety have noted that the justice court has windows and a door on the right side of the courtroom. While a new justice court had been discussed before the market crash years ago, so far, the temporary facilities at Town Hall have been in place for over 20 years.
Every other town justice court on the East End except Southold and Shelter Island has a magnometer and some have a bullet proof wall behind the bench; many have expressed fears for the safety of personnel working in the courtroom in Southold. As far back as 2008, residents including Joan Egan often questioned the safety of the Town Hall meeting room and suggested implementation of security measures.
According to Arlene Hackel, spokeswoman for the New York State Office of Court Administration, while there are court security guidelines and best practices in place across New York State, “There is no mandate/requirement upon the municipality to operate a magnetometer. Since justice courts are funded by the local municipality, it may be a matter of lacking the funds to pay for personnel to operate.”
In recent years, she said, there have been facility and security upgrades implemented in justice courts around the state; justice courts may apply for Justice Court Assistance Project (JCAP) funding for facilities/security-related upgrades.
Price said before the market crash, the board had explored a separate facility for justice court and plans were even drawn up.
As it stands, he said, “The town meeting room is designed to be a meeting room. It’s not designed to be a courtroom. The letter that our court officer wrote was extremely accurate. There is no place to segregate prisoners brought from the county other than in the jury box.”
In addition, there is no other usable location than within the meeting room to pay fines; in most courts, fines are paid at a separate window, he said.
The justice court trailer is used for storage, too, Price said, with “cluttered” files because there is no room for file cabinets. “We do not have anywhere the sufficient storage we need for our files,” he said.
