PRESS RELEASE 1-20-14 Prosecutor’s End of the Year Report 2013 was another busy year for the Prosecutor’s Office and I wanted to update everyone on what has been happening on the third floor of the courthouse. As 2013 started, we had some significant changes that took place in the office. I was still deployed to Kuwait with the National Guard and my assistant who was serving as the acting prosecutor, Ken Clayton, had just been appointed as the Associate Circuit Judge for Phelps County. Another one of my assistants, Laura Kriebs, stepped up and served as the acting prosecutor until I returned in May. As expected, she did a great job. I want to add a personal note in regards to my deployment to Kuwait. I want to thank everyone who supported me, my office, and most importantly, my family during my time away. It is very difficult to be away from your job and family for twelve months and I had a lot of people support us during that time period. All of this goodwill and support reminded me why Pulaski County is a great place to live. To all of those that supported us, thank you. Please know that your support is appreciated! Despite the fact that I was gone for about half of the year, my team continued to serve the citizens of Pulaski County and 2013 was a busy year for the Prosecutor’s Office. We filed over 1700 criminal cases and handled over 4000 traffic cases this year. The criminal cases increased by 115 cases over 2012. We collected and disbursed $208,495 in restitution and victim fees to victims of crime. Finally, we were able to obtain $59,300 in the County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund from offenders, which helped to fund improvements, personnel, and training for my office, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Coroner. We continue to upgrade the technology aspects of the office this year to be more efficient and better serve the county. We implemented a new program that allows us to accept credit card payments for restitution, bad check, and tax payments. This can be done in the office, over the phone, or now online. This system costs us nothing and has helped us to improve our collection rates with more payment options and more convenience. We upgraded the Prosecutor’s Office website (pulaskicountymopa) by now providing for common forms to be downloaded from the website. Some examples of the forms now available online are the bad check affidavit, bad check warning sign, victim impact statement, and the victim notification form. Having these forms online will assist those who may not be able to come into our office but still need our services. We also still utilize our Facebook page to keep the citizens informed of our happenings. facebook/PulaskiCountyProsecutorsOffice We continued our two new events that we began last year to raise awareness for victims of crimes during Victim’s Rights Week. The first was a breakfast we co-hosted with Kid’s Harbor, a local child advocacy agency. The second event was a golf tournament to have fun while raising money for various victim service organizations in Pulaski County. I am pleased to announce that we were able to raise $700 during these events. This money was distributed between the Prosecutor’s victim advocate program, Kids’ Harbor, and Genesis House to benefit these groups’ services to victims of crime. In December, I attended the first ever National Veterans Court Conference in Washington D.C. Pulaski County is at the forefront in establishing a Veterans Treatment Court that provides an alternative to the traditional criminal justice system to veterans who find themselves in trouble and addresses the issues that are particular to veterans. Pulaski County is one of the first of these types of courts in Missouri and as a result of our success, it may become a regional court serving multiple counties. I learned a lot during this conference and met with a number of other prosecutors from jurisdictions across the United States who also deal with veterans in the criminal justice system and the unique issues that come with them. At the end of the year, we received some very welcome news. We applied for and received Federal grant funds under the Violence Against Women Act. This two year award will provide us about $85,000 in federal funds to hire a prosecutor to focus on domestic violence offenses. We hope to have the new prosecutor in place within the next couple of weeks. 2014 is an election year and a number of people have asked me if I intend on running for re-election. The answer is yes, I will be running for another term as Prosecutor. I will make a formal announcement of my campaign in the near future. As you can see, we have had a busy year. I continue to be committed to keeping the citizens of Pulaski County safe and ensuring that criminals answer for their crimes. I look forward to continuing to serve as your Prosecutor in 2014 and hopefully beyond. Please direct all questions to Kevin Hillman, Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:52:51 +0000
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