Athens County's felony-diversion program—a pretrial diversion program that allows fourth- and fifth-degree felons to erase the conviction in exchange for participation in the program—may have the authority to charge defendants a supervisory fee after all.
An opinion written earlier this month by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro stated that state law did not specifically give county prosecutors the authority to charge defendants a fee for pretrial diversion programs. In response to the opinion, County Prosecutor C. David Warren cut the county's felony-diversion program because the county could not afford to run the program without the fee.
But a provision to the state's budget bill may resolve the issue. The provision would allow prosecuting attorneys to charge a reasonable fee for their programs, Warren said. The provision — already passed in the House of Representatives — is being considered by Senate.
Warren said he is unsure of when the Senate will vote on the provision, but a decision should be made soon.
The county's felony-diversion program charges defendants $250 a year for a two year program. As a part of the program defendants also had to pay victim restitution and court costs up front, maintain or seek employment, complete community service requirements and check-in with a supervisor once a month, Warren said.
In the past two years the program has collected $33,500 in fees, $26,800 in court costs and more than $100,000 in victim restitution, Warren said. The only cost to running the program was the salary of the part-time employee, who supervised the defendants.
The 67 defendants in the program will be allowed to finish, despite its uncertain future, Warren said. But, if the provision passes, new defendants will be accepted into the program.
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Jen Strawn
