TMCnet News
Matrix brings effeciency to prosecutor's office [The Portsmouth Daily Times, Ohio](Portsmouth Daily Times, The (OH) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 31--The Scioto County Prosecutor's Office has a new computer program designed to make court cases run more efficiently, save on paperwork and give all parties involved greater access to evidence in the case. "The name of the program is Matrix," Scioto County Prosecutor Mark Kuhn said. "Matrix is a case management program for prosecutors and it's more than a database. It's a program that allows us to -- one -- track cases, but also to draft documents and generate documents, to do some of the reporting I have to do as a prosecutor." One of the main components is electronic discovery. Discovery is simply evidence that the prosecutor's office has in a particular case, and the defense attorneys in a case are entitled to access to that evidence as well as a list of witnesses. Before Matrix, it was paperwork that had to be picked up or delivered. Now attorneys can go to the prosecutor's web page and see that discovery. "With this program, once we provide that discovery document, it will send it electronically to the attorney and the attorney can now log on to a limited portal and access the stuff that's disclosed to them," Kuhn said. "They get an electronic copy and if they want a printed copy they can print their own." Kuhn said the Matrix system makes the information more quickly accessed which means the case can get to court quicker. "One of the things we've talked about for ten years is to narrow that time between the crime and the trial," Kuhn said. Sometimes the evidence is in the form of a list of items while in other cases it might include things such as photographs of everything from crime scene photos to things such as compact disc recordings of witness statements. "It doesn't mean that the attorney is going to be able to look at those items through this, but if there's photographs, most of the photographs will be on there," Kuhn said. "Items that are very large we still put in as items, so attorney's still have to come and pick up those items." The other party involved in the system is the law enforcement officer. They will conduct an investigation and then enter that information into the same system. "They will log into something called Matrix Crime," Kuhn said. "They (law enforcement officer) put the information in for this person, for this crime. When they do that, they attach all of their reports, all their witness statements, the 911 call, anything but those very large digital files or computerized criminal histories." Kuhn said when his investigator, Larry Gray, comes in the morning after police officers have sent in the information it will be on his list. Gray then forwards that report to Kuhn who looks at it and decides if he wants to handle the case or assign it to an assistant prosecutor, then that person will review the file for the Scioto County grand jury. While defense attorneys and law enforcement officers as well as state and federal officers who have registered with the prosecutor's office, have limited access to the system, the prosecutor's office is the only entity that has full access to everything in the system and that can be fine tuned by allowing Kuhn and someone he chooses to have the only access to some confidential information. Matrix Crime even sends emails to law enforcement officers informing them of the date and time of plea hearings so they can make arrangements to be there. Once a case is over, it sends the results of the verdict to those involved as well. "I think people in this county have high expectations for law enforcement," Kuhn said. "Whether it's the cop on the street or a narcotics officer, a detective, a prosecutor, probation officer, parole officer, I think people have high expectations and should." Kuhn said, while some jurisdictions do not do uniform crime reporting, Portsmouth does, so some numbers when it comes to statistics are skewed because some do not report to a central system. "So is it better to be proactive and try to fix the problem or is it better to say we don't want the bad press, we're not going to report it?" Kuhn said. "It goes back to that question do you look at it or do you hide it. My thought is -- you report it and then fix it." Reach Frank Lewis at 740-353-3101, ext. 1928, or on Twitter @franklewis. ___ (c)2014 The Portsmouth Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio) Visit The Portsmouth Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio) at www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |