COM 0521.009 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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District Court The Hawaii County Prosecutor's Office covers seven district courts islandwide. Two and a half deputies in East Hawaii, one in North Hawaii and two in West Hawaii, handle all of the misdemeanor and traffic cases for Hawaii County. District Court deputies spend approximately 1 /4 to 1 /3 of their time processing traffic violations on calendars as well as in trials. District court deputies handle a total of 97 traffic/criminal calendars per month islandwide. These calendars do not include the misdemeanor domestic violence cases as those are heard on different days in East Hawaii. The traffic/criminal calendars cover every type ofcrime/violation from barking dogs, and no-fault insurance to assaults, drug cases, criminal property damage and also include regulatory violations from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the State Harbors Division, the Deparhnent of Transportation and other departments. Family Court The Office of the Prosecuting Attorney continues to assign one Hilo and one Kona deputy to handle Family Court cases. Additionally, our North Hawaii deputy handles all of the Family Court cases for the Hamakua, North and South Kohala areas. The goals of the Family Court unit are: • Early identification by all participants of the criminal justice system; • Expedited processing through the criminal justice system; • Intense monitoring of a juvenile's criminal activity and more meaningful sentencing; • Maintaining a network with other agencies to exchange information on gang identification, gang activities and case dispositions. These agencies include probation, police, Department of Education, Family Court and other private agencies; • Promoting prevention programs through schools and Community organizations. Forfeiture Project Federal and State Forfeiture programs are intended to impose economic sanctions on persons for the profits derived from criminal activity. The instrumentality used or intended to he used to facilitate the commission of covered offenses can be forfeited. The State Forfeiture Program is administered by the State Attorney General's Office and the federal program by the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration. Our goal is to continue efforts to forfeit assets acquired through illegal activity or used for illegal activity. Forfeitures take the profitability out of illegal activity and places the asset or the proceeds from the assets for use by law enforcement. We have found that forfeitures are an effective deterrent to criminal activity. 8