Togliatti's courtroom leads way in video proceedings

Aside from the mooning incident, Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti is pleased with the way her experiment is going.

As of March 1, jailed defendants have been making their initial appearances, arraignments and bail hearings before Togliatti via video.

Instead of being handcuffed and shackled and marched over to the Clark County Courthouse, inmates scheduled to appear before Togliatti are instead escorted without chains from their cells to an activity room in the Clark County Detention Center.

When it's their turn, the inmate stands before a camera and talks to Togliatti. At the same time, the inmate can see what's going on in the courtroom by watching a video monitor.

A public defender is in the jail with them and, whenever necessary, microphones can be turned off so the inmate can confer with his attorney privately, Togliatti said.

If an inmate has his own attorney, the attorney must still appear in court, but he can talk privately with his client over a telephone located just outside the courtroom.

"The equipment is amazing," Togliatti said. "I'm very pleased with the quality of the sound and the video monitors."

With the new Regional Justice Center scheduled to open in 18 months, court officials decided to try out video teleconferencing to see if it would ease transportation, safety and time issues, Togliatti said.

Togliatti, who is chief Las Vegas Justice Court judge, said that shortly after she volunteered for the experiment, representatives of Jefferson Audio Visual Systems installed $36,000 worth of audio and visual equipment and the pilot program began.

About 1,200 inmates have appeared via video thus far and already it appears that the program is successful enough to install in the other seven justice courts, Togliatti said. Each of the courtrooms will cost roughly the same amount of money to equip, money that has already been set aside for just this eventuality, she said.

Metro Police Lt. Mike Holt said that with more than 300 prisoners having to be ferried back and forth to court every day, the idea of video teleconferencing is an excellent one.

"Whenever you don't have to move prisoners out of a building and you can allocate manpower to other places," the likelihood of a prisoner becoming unruly, passing contraband or escaping greatly diminishes, Holt said.

Because the current courtrooms are so small, prisoners often end up overflowing into the pews normally reserved for attorneys, onlookers and out-of-custody defendants, Togliatti said. And, even when one inmate's hearing is over, he has to sit there for the next 90 minutes or so until everyone else's matter is heard.

Since the system was installed in her courtroom, Togliatti said people have plenty of room to sit and inmates and their family members can't disrupt proceedings by trying to converse with each other.

Deputy District Attorneys Christopher Lalli and Gabrielle Ferrales said they feel much more secure now.

"That courtroom is real small and you get real uncomfortable when there's a guy literally sitting three feet from you and you're arguing to keep him in custody on a charge that could put him in jail for the rest of his life," Lalli said.

Ferrales said even though inmates and their family members are well aware that interacting with each other in the courtroom is against policy, she has seen bailiffs arrest people for doing so.

That is no longer a problem in Togliatti's courtroom, Ferrales said.

Defense attorney David Amesbury agreed, saying he's glad he doesn't have to worry about rival gang members appearing in court, taunting one another. There's no point in them showing up to court if their fellow gang member isn't going to be there.

Amesbury said municipal court defendants have been appearing via video for awhile now.

"I haven't seen any glitches," Amesbury said. "It's the wave of the future. The day of three or four defendants coming over to the courthouse are over."

The only drawback Ferrales and Lalli see with video teleconferencing is it takes away from the solemnity of the proceedings.

"I think the formality of the courtroom is good for the in-custody defendants," Ferrales said. "They see the judge face-to-face and that sometimes lends itself to negotiations."

Togliatti agreed, recalling one incident in which a defendant, upset that she wouldn't release him on bail, walked away from the camera and then dropped his pants.

She has also heard that a lot of phone numbers are being exchanged between male and female inmates, something that would never happen in a courtroom, Togliatti said.

"It's difficult to maintain decorum over a group of people you're not in the same room with," Togliatti said.

However, the incidents of outright disrespect are rare and all things considered, it is a minor drawback, Togliatti said.

The system also has some bugs to be worked out when it comes to non-English speaking defendants, Togliatti said. There aren't enough such defendants to justify sending interpreters to the jail and yet it's difficult and time-consuming to translate over a telephone.

But all things new require tinkering and Togliatti said she believes a solution will be found for that problem.

Togliatti said one day all of the county's district courts and outlying municipal and justice courts will be hooked up as well.

Not having to drive people to Las Vegas from such places as Laughlin and Mesquite would save the county a great deal of money, Togliatti said.

archive