A new program to deal with the problem of hot checks received by merchants in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County was unveiled Thursday by Jefferson County District Judge Kim Bridgforth.
Comparing the program to DWI court, Bridgforth said there will be a “more hands on emphasis” by the court, the prosecutor’s office and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office.
The judge presented the initiative before a group of merchants, bankers and others in her courtroom Thursday.
“The sheriff will assign one person to serve hot check warrants daily, and what we need from the merchants is a quicker response to hot checks. Help us to help you,” Bridgforth said.
Patterned after a similar program at Sherwood, Bridgforth said she sees people who are in jail every day and noticed how many of them had paperwork requiring them to appear in court at Sherwood, and after checking, discovered that those appearances were because of hot check violations.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“Sherwood is the hot check mecca in Arkansas and they have an aggressive program to collect those checks,” Bridgforth said.
Deputy Court Clerk Brooke Stayton, who went to Sherwood to look at the program, and said that city has a “90 percent collection rate.”
“We’ve seen a lot of businesses leave Pine Bluff and there are not a lot of businesses that take checks anymore,” Stayton said.“That’s (writing hot checks) theft of services, theft of goods and somebody has got to pay for it.”
One of the ways Bridgforth plans to improve collection of hot checks is by keeping more of an eye on offenders.
“”If they owe a lot of restitution, have a lot of bad checks, we’re going to check on them regularly,” Bridgforth said. “We will see how many of those checks they have paid off, and who they paid.”
Prosecuting Attorney S. Kyle Hunter said hot check laws in Arkansas did not change much with the adopting of new laws.
“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, when a person writes a check that bounces, that’s theft and they should be held accountable for that,” Hunter said. “We’re going to try to be more efficient and get the money back to the merchants quicker.”
To do that, Hunter asked merchants to turn in hot checks within 30 days after receiving them.
“We know sometimes, after you contact a person about a hot check, they will promise to pay you within a certain period of time, say a month, so you hold on to that check,” Hunter said. “Then one month becomes two months, and three months, even longer.”
Hunter said time is important in collecting hot checks.
“The quicker they get into the system, the more likely we are to collect,” Hunter said. “Our goal is that within 90 days, we either collect for the check or we file charges.”
Chief Deputy Sheriff Stanley James, who was representing Sheriff Gerald Robinson, said that in the past, they were limited on the amount of available jail space, but that’s no longer the case.
“We’re going to do everything we can to collect those checks and satisfy the merchants because they are the people we work for,” James said.
People arrested in other parts of the state with hot check warrants will now be brought back to the county to face those charges, Hunter said, “making the program even more efficient.”
Merchants will receive a letter within the next few days outlining the program and how they can help the court and prosecutors.
Bridgforth said while some people charged with violating the hot check law will take their cases to court, “the vast majority, 90 percent, will take a plea.”
For more information, call 541-4646.