Tom Williams, president of the Genesee County Bar Association, issued the following announcement this week:
Hon. Paula L. Feroleto, administrative judge of the Eighth Judicial District, has announced that effective immediately, all Treatment Court proceedings in Genesee County will now be held in County Court.
The Honorable Michael M. Mohun, Wyoming County Court judge, has been assigned to preside. This change will allow both misdemeanors and felonies to be addressed effectively using an established Treatment Court model.
The Treatment Court coordinator is Sarah Welker.
Court proceedings both virtual and in-person will be held Monday mornings at 10 o'clock in the Supreme Court Courtroom at the Genesee County Courts Facility, commencing this Monday, Aug. 17, before Judge Mohun.
Because removing Treatment Court from Batavia City Court seemed rather unexpected and we were curious why a judge from another county was being put in charge of Treatment Court, The Batavian reached out to Judge Feroleto for a more detailed explanation of the decision. She issued the following statement:
The Treatment Court model in the smaller counties of the Eighth Judicial District is to have a county court judge handle the Treatment Court. County court judges can handle felony matters that arise under Article 216 of the CPL, which provides for judicial diversion. These are felony cases over which a county court judge would have jurisdiction. City court judges handle misdemeanors. Rather than having two separate drug courts, one felony level in county court and another in city court, it makes sense to have one drug court handled by one judge. Judge Michael Mohun has handled conflict cases in Genesee County for many years for both judges Noonan and Zambito. This experience has familiarized him with the Genesee County courts and the various stakeholders involved in the Treatment Court model. He has been running the Treatment Court in Wyoming county since 2013. Judge Mohun was honored by the New York State Bar Association in January 2020 for his leadership and innovation with treatment courts. He is ideally suited to handle this change to the Treatment Court model in Genesee County.
As you are well aware, it has been somewhat of a unique year in terms of challenges. The city courts were unable to process misdemeanor appearance tickets for many months, and Batavia City Court will have no shortage of work as the year moves forward. This change is not a reflection on the city court judges but will hopefully be an enhancement and improvement as the number and types of cases can be expanded. The timing worked out well as Judge Rogers had graduated 10 participants on July 30, so a substantial number of the participants graduated before the program was taken over by Judge Mohun. Judge Rogers has also taken on all after-hours arraignments of town and village matters during the pandemic, so his plate is full. In my role as administrative judge, I review the caseloads of all the courts and assignments and sometimes it helps to balance workloads or try something different. This seemed like a good time to try something different with the Genesee County Treatment Court model.
