The Second Circuit Solicitor's Office has a new, more efficient way to conduct first appearances for Aiken County criminal domestic violence arrests.
Since Feb. 27, prosecutors have been holding first appearances for criminal domestic violence-first offense the last Friday of each month at the Aiken County Judicial Center. Assistant Solicitor Wilder Harte explained that under the old system, people charged with criminal domestic violence-first offense would have their first appearance before the magistrate where the crime occurred.
"You told the magistrate whether you wanted to plead guilty, have a jury trial or have a bench trial," he said. "Under this new system, everyone who gets arrested between two sets of dates comes to the Aiken County courthouse before Judge (Donna) Williamson, and we have that first appearance where they have the same three options. It's just before one magistrate instead of five."
If a defendant wishes to plead guilty, the state takes the guilty plea immediately. If the defendant requests a bench trial, that trial gets scheduled for the next criminal domestic violence court the next month.
Only criminal domestic violence-first offense cases handled by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office are part of the new centralized court. Cases in municipalities are still handled in municipal court, and anything beyond criminal domestic violence-first offense becomes a General Sessions charge.
There were 62 criminal domestic violence-first offense cases made by the Sheriff's Office between Jan. 1 and March 13, according to Harte. Of those, 45 were disposed, nine requested jury trials, seven were continued and one requested a bench trial. If a jury trial is requested, the case goes back to the individual magistrate.
Harte said a benefit of the new centralized system is that the Solicitor's Office gets involved in cases earlier, which is particularly helpful in bench trials.
"Under the old system, the Solicitor's Office didn't get involved until a jury trial was requested," he said. "The deputies for the Sheriff's Office who made the arrest would testify at the bench trial, and they would also be the prosecuting agent. This system gets us more involved, and we have a better understanding of how many cases are out there. Rather than contacting all five magistrates, everything comes through us, and the deputies don't have to prosecute their own cases."
Williamson, who is an associate magistrate for Aiken County, compared the new system to the already-existing centralized traffic court and said it will not only help magistrate judges lighten their case loads but also keep deputies out on the road instead of in the courtroom prosecuting cases. She said it's also better from a security standpoint.
"Having it at the courthouse on Park Avenue, we have full security there, we have metal detectors and we have security working the courtroom," she said, adding that the magistrate courtrooms don't have security officers. "It makes the alleged victims feel safer. Bringing in defendants from the jail, it's necessary we have some type of security."
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime and courts beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.