Capt. Albert Kakascik of the Boardman Police Department talks about the Boardman Police Community Portal, available on the police department’s website to provide information to the public on the locations of crimes committed in the township. The department is promoting the portal as a way for the community to obtain information police sometimes cannot give out under the requirements of Marsy’s Law, which was approved in a constitutional amendment approved by Ohio voters in 2017.

YOUNGSTOWN — Marsy’s Law, first enacted in California in 2008, spread to 11 states, including Ohio in 2017, when voters approved it that November to provide greater rights to crime victims.

But the true impact of Ohio’s Marsy’s law only now is being felt, as new rules regarding this law went into effect April 6, with some revisions July 7.

The Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office trained a large number of Mahoning County law enforcement agencies in August to explain the impact.

Ralph Rivera, one of two chiefs of the prosecutor’s criminal division, said the biggest impacts are being felt by police departments, though it has implications for clerk of courts offices, prosecutors, judges and the media.

According to the Ohio Supreme Court, Marsy’s Law, also known as the Ohio Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights, states that crime victims “have the right to reasonable notice, to be present and heard at all court proceedings, to be informed of the release of the offender, to offer input on negotiated pleas, to a prompt conclusion of their case, and to restitution for economic losses resulting from the criminal offense or delinquent act.”

TYPES OF OFFENSES

Rivera said a key to understanding Marcy’s Law is to know that there are three types of crimes for which this law requires law enforcement officers to talk to the victims and provide information to them “upon initial contact.” These are crimes of violence, sexually oriented offenses and violations of protection orders.

For other types of offenses, “it doesn’t have to be done on initial contact. It’s basically as soon as it is practical,” Rivera said.

The key part of that requirement is a form called a Victim’s Rights Request Form. Upon initial contact on those three types of offenses, law enforcement is required to talk to the victim about the form and have the person complete it, Rivera said.

The form asks if he or she wants name, address and identifying information removed from law enforcement records, prosecution records and or court records when such records are requested by the public or news media.

The form also asks whether the victim wants to be notified when certain events happen in the case, such as an arrest, suspect release or escape.

It also asks whether the individual wants to be notified of all public proceedings or wants to be able to talk to the prosecutor about events, such as a plea agreement or amendments to charges or dismissal.

It also asks whether the victim wants to be notified of defense motions asking for personal information about the victim and asks about appointing a “victim’s representative” to assist them, such as their own attorney or a friend.

ROLLOUT OF RULES

Rivera said the new form has raised a lot of questions among law enforcement “because this added a new aspect to officers responding to a criminal offense.”

Rivera said it appears the increased workload will impact more heavily larger police departments because of their larger number of crimes to investigate.

The rollout of rules for carrying out Marsy’s Law took place in April, but a change occurred in August to roll back one of the requirements. Initially, all crime victims had to be notified upon initial contact by law enforcement about the Victim’s Rights Request Form, but now only applies to victims of crimes of violence, sexually oriented offenses and violations of protection orders.

Rivera said news media will notice significant changes in the content of police reports and other documents they receive.

“They are going to be redacted now,” he said of identifying information about victims.

“The statute says name, address and any identifying information,” Rivera said of the information a victim can have removed. It’s not completely clear what “identifying information” has to be redacted, such as whether a person is male or female or their age, Rivera said.

“This is all new,” Rivera said. “There may be some litigation, some questions that come up and it goes up to the court. And there may be some clarifications.”

Besides police reports, there also will be changes made to indictments released to the public involving individuals who request their personal information be removed, Rivera said.

In many cases, an indictment gives the name of the victim or victims, and they sometimes give the victims’ birth date.

Rivera said the prosecutor’s office is working with the Mahoning County Clerk of Courts office to assist them with eliminating that information from indictments that the public can access. Kathi McNabb Welsh, chief deputy clerk of courts, declined to comment on how the changes will affect that office, referring questions to Rivera.

CLERK’S OFFICE

But in recent weeks, clerk of courts personnel have begun to implement Marsy’s Law changes, restricting access to certain criminal case files until an employee has had time to determine whether the victim filled out a Victim’s Rights Request Form. If the person asked for removal of identifying information involving the clerk of courts office, then redaction would have to take place before the file can be released

The form tells a victim about automatic rights guaranteed under Marsy’s Law, such as “the right to be treated with fairness and respect for your safety, dignity and privacy.”

Other rights are “to reasonable protection from the accused or any person acting on behalf of the accused” and the “right to information about the status of the case,” and the right “to be present at all public proceedings.”

The victim also has the “right to tell the court your opinion in public proceedings involving release, plea, sentencing, disposition parole and any other hearing that involves victims’ rights,” the form states.

HISTORY

The first Marsy’s Law was created after the 1983 murder of Marsy Nicholas in California by her boyfriend. One week after her murder and on the way home from her funeral service, her family stopped at a market to buy bread, and Marsy’s mother saw the killer. The family had no idea he had been released from jail.

Ohio approved its version of Marsy’s Law in November 2017 in a statewide constitutional amendment. At the time, Mike DeWine, then Ohio attorney general, said: “In Ohio, criminals have enforceable constitutional rights but crime victims do not.” He encouraged Ohioans to approve the law.

Besides Ohio and California, the states where voters have approved a Marsy’s Law are Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Rivera said the county prosecutor’s office has been providing services and information to crime victims now guaranteed by Marsy’s Law for many years. Shortly after a suspect has been issued an indictment, the office has been sending out a packet of information to crime victims in felony cases, asking them most of the questions contained in the Victim’s Rights Request Form, he said.

The packet tells the victim about the suspect’s arraignment and their rights and services available, he said.

Marsy’s Law affects the personal information for both felony and misdemeanor crimes, but not traffic crimes, Rivera said.

Rivera and Rob Andrews, the other chief of the criminal division, oversee the victim witness program for the Mahoning County courts, as well as the assistant prosecutors.

Rivera said he does not see Marsy’s Law significantly affecting the workload at the county prosecutor’s office or its victim witness division “because we always ensured that the victims were properly notified and given advance notice.”

Rivera said he thinks the law will be a benefit to victims who seek the privacy Marsy’s Law requires. The law “gives (victims) the power to decide whether they want their information out there or not.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Todd Werth, Boardman police chief, said his department has made the changes required by Marsy’s Law, which includes using existing software to remove identifying information about victims from police reports before a report is released to the news media or public.

It means removing the name, age and address, which were almost always provided in copies of police reports in the past.

Werth provided a copy of a recent Boardman report in which a person alleged menacing, telecommunications harassment and attempted extortion. Many words were blacked out, including the many locations where the victim’s name would have been. If the location of the offense is the same as the address of the victim, then the address of the offense is not given in a report given to the public, Werth said.

Boardman police Capt. Albert Kakascik ran a report last week showing that the department took almost 400 reports between Sept. 1 and Sept. 12 that included about 400 victims. That is an indication of how many victims Boardman police speak to on a routine basis, Werth said.

Marsy’s Law — especially its requirement that officers review the Victim’s Rights Request Form with some of them at the time of the incident — reduces the amount of time officers have to answer other calls or carry out proactive policing, Werth said.

“That’s always our concern when we look at these kinds of requirements is, ‘How do we implement them?’ ” Werth said.

“We have spent a lot of time over the past month or so, working with the prosecutor’s office, trying to get clarification of the law, what the requirements are, what are some of the areas we can modify to be able to do productively. And we’ve had policy meetings. I think we are going to be able to strike a balance to really focus on the victims,” he said.

“Helping them navigate their way through the system, starting with us, to the courts, the prosecutor’s office, it’s all very important.”

Werth said eliminating certain information about victims, such as the address where a crime may have been committed, may not be popular with some people.

To help offset such concerns, Boardman is trying to make the public more aware of a crime-mapping portal on the police department’s website that provides information about crimes being reported and shows the locations on mapping software.

The system shows the location by saying, for example, the “700 block” of a street. But it does not give the exact address. To access the system on the Boardman police website, click the Boardman Police Community Portal, then select “click to view Community Dashboard,” then select “mapping” and select the types of crimes you want to view. Clicking on individual incidents brings up the date of the offense and the block of the street. It also provides the police report number a person could ask for to get more information.

“So maybe you don’t get to see the crime blotter as much that says this is what is going on in my neighborhood, but we’re able to put it out in other ways through this community portal,” Werth said.