'WATCHERS' KEEP TABS ON REPEAT OFFENDERS

It took Hubert Martin more than 100 arrests to become the first victim
of Court Watch.

"The judges kept letting him go on drug offenses. So we went after him
on battery of a law enforcement officer," said Court Watch co-founder
Tina Riggle.

Court Watchers arrived in a Sarasota court in signature yellow polo
shirts to see Martin, 28, sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 1998
as a career criminal.

What began as a neighborhood watch fed up with "revolving door
justice" that released convicted prostitutes, pushers and pimps has
since spread to four other cities including Fort Pierce. Now Riggle
has an eye on West Palm Beach.

Court Watch volunteers track habitual offenders from initial
appearances through probation, appear in court and record case
developments in a group database. Like a neighborhood watch, the group
hopes it makes an impression with its presence. The silent message:
Those worthy of scrutiny threaten the community.

"We actually research criminal histories, see where they score out,
look at legislation and statutes. We do a lot of little things that
are so simple. It scares people, but it's not that hard," she said.

West Palm Beach Crime Prevention, which works with the police
coordinating neighborhood watch activities, is interested in setting
up some kind of a Court Watch, board President Terry Knight said. She
said the organization may have wanted some sort of Court Watch
provision when it formed in 1982 because she spotted a Court Watch
provision in the board's 1982 bylaws.

Area judges have attended her group's monthly crime prevention
meetings. But she said she feels judges will be more accountable with
people sitting in the courtroom the same way police were more
accountable after residents patrolled in her neighborhood. Plus,
Delray Beach and Palm Beach have tried similar programs.

"I welcome anybody to my courtroom; I just don't want them to upset
the impartiality or distract the jury," Chief Circuit Judge Walter
Colbath said.

Riggle said judges in Orlando, St. Petersburg and Sarasota had their
doubts about the yellow shirts.

"They were like, 'You're in the wrong courtroom; this one isn't going
to help you. You need to go to case management and not sit in
arraignments," Riggle said, "They were kind of leery of what we were
doing. They know now."

The former brokerage manager coordinates the city's program for roughly
$37,000 a year, supervising between 25 and 50 volunteers. With the aid
of a Sarasota police lieutenant, she also holds one to two-day training
sessions. It takes about six volunteers to start a program, she said.
Her advice to West Palm: "You better hop on the wagon because we've got
major cities where it's really taking off."

As of 1999, the average sentence for those targeted by Court Watch was
20 years, Riggle said. During the program's first year, volunteers
spent about 600 hours in court and in one case saw 12 offenders of 40
caught in a drug sweep receive an average sentence of 6.3 years -- six
times what those not monitored received. Volunteers also attended as
encouragement for judges to issue convicted prostitutes higher bonds,
with what Riggle calls a consequent rise in the average from $300 to
between $5,000 and $10,000.

Court Watch slipped into courtrooms in St. Petersburg two years ago,
Gainesville and Orlando only last year. The Fort Pierce branch already
is tracking 30 habitual offenders and held its first meeting of eight
volunteers Wednesday night. If approved at a St. Lucie County
roundtable meeting on Feb. 2, the group could be in line for a
$100,000 grant administered by the Department of Juvenile Justice this
spring. They plan to move with three employees to a Second Street
office this week.

"I think the time is right. We've had this increase in crime, in
homicides, and the situation with juveniles," said Rae Pike, 49, who
has served as executive director of Court Watch in Fort Pierce.

"I wouldn't be surprised if within the next month we have at least 25
people. So I've got to start ordering all their shirts," Pike said.

Volunteers who saw homicides rise to 14 last year, a 10-year high,
will begin sitting in at court in March, Pike said. Riggle plans to
visit Fort Pierce for trainings soon after, all open to the public.

From drug crimes and prostitution, Court Watch has expanded to target
domestic violence, repeat offenders and property crime -- all concerns
in West Palm Beach where Sgt. Mike Roggin of the crime prevention unit
said, "It's the burglars who are committing the robberies so they can
buy the drugs from the drug dealers."

Roggin favors the program.

"Our interest is the same as citizens' . . . putting away somebody you
see out on the street all the time," Roggin said.

Although Crime Prevention committee member Gail Levine has attended
prostitution arraignments for more than a year on her own, she said,
Court Watch appears to be "a wonderful idea." Already she said her
presence has alerted judges to the benefits of sentencing options like
Prostitution Intact Prevention Education that sends those who solicit
to a series of classes.

Which, as an educational goal, is all well and good, Colbath said. Of
the other advocacy groups that have appeared in his courtroom, Colbath
pointed to Mothers Against Drunk Driving as avid court watchers who
obey rules of decorum -- including his ban on spectator uniforms,
which he fears could influence juries. MADD observers wear pins instead.

Court Watchers learn the law, he said, "The good and the bad," but
they should not expect to influence jurists or juries -- even when
faced with habitual offenders.

"I would hope that the judge would realize such a person is a threat
to the community and not need that," Colbath said, adding that it
would be wrong for court watchers "to expect their presence to have an
effect on the judge" even as a "subtle form of political pressure."

Still, judges are elected officials.

Said Levine of her sit-ins: "They (judges) do recognize that there is
a power of the people when their term is going to be up."