Virginia Beach devises new plan to collect restitution from criminals

VIRGINIA BEACH

Offenders who don't pay restitution for their crimes might not get sent back to jail, but they could see a sheriff's deputy show up and claim their bed - or have their wages garnisheed.

The city has instituted a new approach to collecting the money. City Treasurer John Atkinson's office goes after restitution for new cases coming out of the Beach's Circuit, General District,  and Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts. Previously, Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant's office handled collections, but budget cuts forced city leaders to come up with an alternative.

"We're going to take this criminal process, streamline it into the tax collection process and see if we can't make it work," Atkinson said.

"It is, in my opinion, one thousand times better service to the victims than we were able to provide," Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colin D. Stolle said.

The treasurer's office sends restitution payers a monthly bill. And defendants will get charged fees ranging from $20 to $35, depending on the transaction, for the increased workload for the treasurer's office.

The General District Court may reconsider the decision to move responsibility for the collection of restitution over to the city treasurer's office, because some of the judges have had second thoughts about charging some of the fees involved, according to Stolle.

Typical cases in which judges order restitution include embezzlements, larcenies, construction and welfare fraud, according to Corey J. Burdin, victim witness assistant director for Bryant's office. The commonwealth's attorney's office in Virginia Beach took over restitution in the late 1980s, according to Stolle. As the city grew, so did the job. In 1993, the office collected $90,000 in restitution. By 2008, the amount collected totaled $1.2 million, Burdin said. It has 1,500 open restitution cases.

If people didn't pay, "The only thing we could do was take them back to court and ask the judges to put them back in jail," for violating the terms of their probation, Stolle said.

Criminal defendants often don't have a lot of disposable income, Stolle said. Some would tell judges they were between jobs, and often a payment plan would be worked out.

Under the new plan, Atkinson has two staffers involved in collecting restitution. The office can report the offender to the Department of Taxation for failure to pay. Or go to the person's home with the sheriff and take custody of personal property.

Atkinson said he initiated such proceedings in the case of a woman who owes about $250 in restitution and had ignored repeated payment requests and calls.

The office also can garnishee wages - without having to go to court to request permission, Atkinson said.

"There is no due process," he said. "That's basically the difference."

Trying to get probation revoked to send the offender back to jail will be a last resort.

Defense attorney Mark T. Del Duca said the potential of sending someone back to jail for not paying restitution was a big hammer the commonwealth's attorney's office had used in the past.

"You don't go to jail for not paying your electric bill, but you do go to jail for not paying your restitution," said Del Duca, who questioned whether the treasurer's office had the resources to take over the collection.

Atkinson said the new plan is an experiment - but one that his office is equipped to take on.

"We are in the money-collecting business," he said. "All it is to us i s another bill that we send out."

Crime victim Richard Sanders still thinks the threat of getting locked up is a good way to make sure people pay restitution. His used car dealership on Virginia Beach Boulevard was broken into in 2008. A window was broken, two offices were ransacked, and two laptops were stolen, he said. Mark Stacy was convicted of grand larceny and burglary and ordered to pay more than $5,000 in restitution.

Sanders said he started getting checks for $50 a month after Stacy was released from prison. At that rate, Sanders expects it will take more than eight years for him to get his money back.

When Sanders gets his check each month, he thinks about cases he reads about in which people are ordered to pay restitution for as much as $300,000.

"No way those people are ever going to see the money," Sanders said.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com