Fun weekend gone wrong? Road crew awaits some Little 500 partiers

April 11-- Apr. 11--Little 500 weekend party-goers who run into trouble with the law will still have the opportunity to make amends on Sunday morning.

Last year, funding issues led to the county cutting back on its road crew program, which gave eligible offenders throughout the year the opportunity to clean up the community as an alternative to traditional jail sentencing. The option had been offered for more than three decades.

But, officials plan to still offer the road crew program this weekend.

"Everything is basically the same as it has always been for Little 500," Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant said.

That includes individuals reporting to court Sunday morning after Little 500; spending a a few hours Sunday cleaning up any mess left from the festivities; paying required fees, which are set to be up to $549 this year; and completing other court-ordered requirements to avoid having minor convictions on their records.

Promoted as "The World's Greatest College Weekend," Little 500 is the largest collegiate bike racing event in the country, according to the Indiana University Student Foundation website. Money raised from the bicycle races helps the student foundation fund undergraduate student scholarships through the Little 500 Financial Emergency Fund. The fund helps students "who face the fear of not being able to continue their education at Indiana University due to financial hardship," according to the website.

However, for some, weekend festivities end with run-ins with local law enforcement and court officials.

Oliphant said the most common cases the prosecutor's office receive during the weekend are alcohol-related violations.

This will also be the first Little 500 weekend that residents and visitors can rent electric scooters as an alternative form of transportation. Oliphant's primary worry is that riders might injure themselves, but she said if someone is caught riding a scooter while drunk, he or she would likely be charged with public intoxication or illegal consumption.

She said most of the cases court officials encounter during Little 500 weekend qualify for the county's pretrial diversion program, which is offered to eligible first-time, low-level offenders charged with violations such as public intoxication and shoplifting.

"This voluntary program is designed as an intervention aimed at addressing potential substance abuse issues and reducing offender recidivism," according to the prosecutor office's website. "It provides a greater degree of accountability, through educational programming (alcohol/substance abuse education/treatment) and other sanctions (road crew/community service), than the typical sentence imposed by a judge under a traditional court conviction."

However, what makes the Little 500 diversion program unique is that offenders report to court on Sunday on the same weekend as the races -- a concept that started in 1992.

Oliphant said one incentive for hosting the Sunday court is to process the larger-than-normal number of people who become eligible for the pretrial diversion program on Little 500 weekend without impacting the program's regular day-to-day operations.

Also, since Little 500 weekend takes place near the end of the school year, having Sunday court also allows student offenders the opportunity to take care of their offenses before classes end and they leave town. The same goes for weekend visitors from other communities.

Beth Hamlin, executive director of the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office, said the Sunday court and work session reduce the likelihood that offenders will have to return to Bloomington to satisfy a court date or that officials would have to issue an arrest warrant because someone failed to appear for a hearing.

Hamlin said the number of offenders has been steadily decreasing since the court's inception.

"We now have football weekends almost as bad as Little 500," Hamlin said, comparing caseloads.

In 2011, 236 individuals went through the Sunday court, compared with 102 last year, according to county data. Oliphant said the office is not sure what is contributing to the decline.

While the number of offenders eligible for the program has decreased, the fees associated with the program have not.

Those who may become eligible for the program this year can expect to pay a $549 fee. Last year, it was $428. Hamlin said the fee was increased following actions by the Indiana Legislature last year. Lawmakers approved increasing pretrial diversion program fees, a portion of the cost users pay as part of the program, from $170 to $290. According to H-T archives, offenders were paying up to $220 when the Little 500 pretrial diversion program started.

Oliphant said offenders typically have to pay this fee up front. However, she said the office gives some offenders a chance to pay later, and those who can't pay it at all have the opportunity to apply for a waiver. This means an able-bodied person could be assigned to do community service instead.

Another benefit of offering the Sunday road crew program on Little 500 weekend is that offenders have the opportunity to clean up any mess left behind following the revelry.

"There's a certain amount of poetic justice in bringing them in and making them clean up the mess they made," Monroe Circuit Court Judge Douglas "Randy" Bridges told the H-T in 1992, when the first Sunday court session was planned.

Contact Ernest Rollins at 812-331-4357, erollins@heraldt.com or @fromernestdesk.

___

(c)2019 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.)

Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.