Posted: 5:21 p.m.Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015

Middletown hopes to collect morethan $1 million in fines

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

BUTLER COUNTY — 

MiddletownMunicipal Court is making a last-ditch effort to collect more than $1 million indelinquent fines, fees and costs before turning them over to the Ohio AttorneyGeneral, officials said.

CourtClerk Steve Longworth said about 2,200 letters are being mailed this weeknotifying residents about their unpaid court fines that accumulated for thelast 18 months, from January 2014 through June 2015. The letters gave adeadline of Dec. 15, 2015 to pay the fines or contact the court, he said.

Longworthsaid on average the fines are about $500 per person, though one person owesmore than $7,000.

Hesaid under a recent change in state law, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office cancollect debt on behalf of local governments under a Local Government CollectionServices program. He said those fines that are unpaid will be turned over tothe AG’s office, and a 10 percent collection fee will be added to the originalcost.

TheOhio Attorney General’s Office is successful, Longworth said, because it has “agood system in place” that gives it the ability to automatically withhold adelinquent person’s state tax refunds or Ohiolottery winnings.

Longworthsaid fines can be paid on-line or in the City Buildingbefore the deadline. If someone is unable to pay the total amount of theirfines, Longworth said, the court will work with that individual. He said MiddletownMunicipal Court Judge Mark Wall is “very willing” to assist those in thecommunity who are working to pay their outstanding fines.

Collectingthe debt impacts all residents because the money is distributed to the city, Butler and Warren counties, the state, Lemon Twp. and Trenton, Longworth said.The city collected $3.5 million in 2014, and of that, $2.3 million resultedfrom criminal cases and $1.2 million from civil cases, according to the audit’sreport.

Lastyear, the city of Middletown received $1.6million, the State of Ohio ($508,000), Butler County($193,000), Lemon Twp. ($11,000), WarrenCounty ($850) and city of Trenton ($145), thereport said.

Middletown will be the secondlocal agency to use the Ohio Attorney General’s Office as a collection agency.Butler County Court Clerk Mary Swain said her agency started using the officeto assist in collecting court costs associated with civil cases. She said fromJan. 26, 2014 to present, the agency has collected nearly $14,000 for thecounty, money that may otherwise never been collected. She said delinquentstypically respond quicker to a letter from Attorney General Mike DeWine’soffice.

Beforethe state office is contacted, Swain said, the county sends three notices toresidents who owe the court money.

InHamilton, about2,000 defendants owe the court about $1.2 million in delinquent fines and costsfor the last 18 months, said Susan Mense, secretary for the Hamilton MunicipalCourt. She said the city doesn’t use a collection agency.