New Court Management System Rolls Out MagicValley.com: June 22- Benton Smith TWIN FALLS • Office employees of the Twin Falls County Courthouse sacrificed their weekend to enter data and scan files in preparation for the new court management system Odyssey. Odyssey will replace the 25-year-old Idaho Statewide Trial Court Automated System featured around the state and became live in Twin Falls County Monday. Twin Falls is the first county in the state to switch to the new program — a pilot for what was called the “most significant transformation for all court records and business practices” by the Idaho Judiciary Branch in a report to Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. “A brand new system with brand new functionality, it’s an all-new world for us,” said Wendy Scott, the Twin Falls Courthouse records department team leader. This is the beginning of a five-year plan that will transition all courts in the state to an electronic court record system. In Twin Falls, courthouse employees such as Scott have been working the past few years to scan images of archived and current cases for the electronic file. Access to these electronic files will mean judges no longer need physical copies at their workbench and will access the information digitally through their program Session Works. “Judges will be on their bench without hard copies,” Said Kristina Glascock. “They will access it through a large touch screen called an All In One.” District Judge Richard Bevan and Magistrate Judge Calvin Campbell will be the first two to pilot the program. Within three to six months all Twin Falls County judges will join the program as they complete the one day of required training. The plan is for citizens to be able to access many of the electronic files through an online program called Portal but as of Friday it was unclear when the records would become available. “For the last handful of years we’ve been scanning archived files and current files, but those aren’t going to be available right away via the portal,” Scott said. The documents that have been scanned for the electronic filing system have not been through a redaction process. Scott said there are privacy concerns for all partially sealed cases and for documents that still have Social Security information, addresses, and other private information they don’t want in the public’s hands. This doesn’t mean citizens will be without any access to the court records; all of the paper copies have been retained. “The one thing for people to keep in mind is that nobody is going to have issues getting access to files,” Scott said. “We don’t plan on going paperless for at least a few months so people will be able to come in and request the case files still.” Twin Falls switching its court management system to Odyssey is the first move to create a connected system through all of Idaho’s counties. The old system included 44 different installations making data sharing between counties difficult. Many counties volunteered to be the launching point for the system but Twin Falls County was chosen by the Idaho Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court chose to make this the pilot for the program due to the size of our county, our location to Boise, and they were impressed with our employee practices,” Glascock said. Ada County will be the next to adopt the program in the fiscal year 2016. In 2017’s fiscal year the rest of the Magic Valley and western Idaho counties will transition, followed by northern Idaho. Eastern Idaho counties will be the last to join the system. It is a long process that will bring lots of changes to the storage and retrieval of court records, but one the state hopes will improve data sharing and conform practices across all courts. “A lot of things are yet to be seen,” Scott said. “We are trying to see just what it will mean for us.” Judge finds Homeland Security in violation of open-records law Lewiston Tribune: June 22- Mike Carter/ Seattle Times A federal judge has found "egregious" violations of the Freedom of Information Act by the Department of Homeland Security for failing to respond to a request for information about the telephone costs for immigrant detainees. U.S. District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman, in an order issued Thursday, chastised the department and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for ignoring Prison Legal News' FOIA request for information about how the agency determines telephone-call rates for detainees. The FOIA was part of a larger, mostly successful effort by the advocacy group to control the costs that prison systems and telephone-service contractors charge inmates to make phone calls. Pechman noted Homeland Security failed to respond to the first FOIA request in July 2013, even though the law says an agency must provide an initial response within 20 days. Failing to do so opened the agency up to a federal lawsuit, the judge noted. A second FOIA request in December also went unacknowledged. Prison Legal News sued in April 2014. In September, ICE responded with a heavily redacted response that did not disclose a key "performance incentive rate" in a phone-provider contract, which Pechman concluded had been improperly withheld. Pechman pointed out that it took 361 days since the first FOIA letter for DHS and ICE to turn over the first batch of documents, and that it took "several months" for the agencies to finish. "The Court finds the delay in responding to Plaintiff's request to be egregious," she wrote, and awarded Prison Legal News reasonable attorneys fees and costs for pursuing the lawsuit. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, which represented the agencies, said Friday it was reviewing Pechman's order and had no comment. Former Hot Topic Manager Gets Probation MagicValley.com: June 23- Benton Smith TWIN FALLS • The Hot Topic manager who police said stole $1,634 over the course of a year was sentenced Monday to two years of probation. After Hot Topic conducted an investigation, Brittny Ann Anderson, 25, was initially charged with two counts of grand theft. Court documents said Anderson pulled items from the store and rang them up as returns then she would write fake names and addresses for the return receipts and pocket cash from the register. “I do feel a lot of regret and I will do everything in my power to make it as right as I can,” Anderson said. District Judge Randy Stoker handed down the sentence in Twin Falls County District Court. Anderson’s defense attorney asked Stoker to withhold judgment on the case to protect her record and to help with financial aid applications since Anderson said she wanted to attend classes at the College of Southern Idaho. The state said that judgment should not be withheld because future employers should have the chance to see the nature of this crime to protect themselves. “I will not withhold judgment in this case for the reason articulated by the state,” Stoker said. Anderson was ordered to pay $774 in retribution through $50 monthly payments starting in September. As part of her probation Anderson will also write and submit a report detailing every assistance program in Twin Falls. “If this was truly a crime you committed because you needed help and didn’t know what to do it is time you educate yourself,” Stoker said. Judge disqualifies self from Elkins murder case Idaho State Journal: June 23- Debbie Bryce POCATELLO — The two men charged in the stabbing death of Lric Elkins on June 5 were in court for a consolidation hearing Monday. It was also decided that a new magistrate judge will preside over the case. Jesse Whitewolf Bruce, 25, is charged with second-degree murder in the case, and Tyrell Owen Dixey, 31, is charged as a principal to murder. Bannock County Deputy Prosecutor Zach Parris said a motion was made Monday to consolidate the preliminary hearings for both men into one. Parris said witnesses and information presented in both cases will be nearly identical. He also said the motion to consolidate will affect only the preliminary hearing — not their trials. Sixth District Magistrate Thomas W. Clark disclosed that he had been the judge on call June 5 and had issued search affidavits and detention orders in the case. Clark also disclosed that as a Boy Scout master, he serves with Bannock County Coroner Kim Quick but said he had not discussed the case with Quick. While Clark said he believed he would still be able to act without bias in the case, he left it up to the two defense attorneys to decide if he should disqualify himself. Clark left the bench, and John Souza, who is representing Dixey, and Randy Schulthies, Bruce’s attorney, voted to determine if the judge should pass the case to another judge. At least one of the lawyers asked that Clark excuse himself. As a result, future hearings, including the motion to consolidate, will be rescheduled in front of a magistrate judge other than Clark, Parris said. Police were called to an apartment complex at 139 N. Grant Street at about 3:30 p.m. on June 5 after someone reported seeing a man in a bloody bathtub. The caller also said individuals from the apartment were looking for a tarp. Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog said that once inside the apartment, police located Bruce and Dixey along with two females in the bedroom with what appeared to be Elkins’ body stuffed into a trash can.