COVINGTON - Kenton County's backlog of warrants is twice as bad as officials originally thought - and the court clerk who has kept the system updated for six years now says she will stop doing it.
The list of people wanted for crimes in Kenton County is actually about 9,000 names long, local law enforcement officials told The Enquirer Friday. That is more than double the 4,350 figure being used since December by authorities trying to address the problem.
And now, the system is about to lose its caretaker. Circuit Clerk Mary Ann Woltenberg said she will notify Kenton County Police Chief Mike Browning next week that her office will stop entering the warrants into the computer system as soon as another agency is designated to take over the job.
The job could grow too big for her workers, with Chief Browning talking about linking Kenton's system with those in Boone and Campbell counties, she said.
''There's no way I could take on that,'' Mrs. Woltenberg said. '' ... If they're going to make changes, this is the time I think I should back out.''
She said she was advised by Paul Isaacs, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts that oversees the state's judiciary system, to get out of the warrants business. Her office assumed maintenance of the list in 1990, she said, because the sheriff's department did not want to do it.
''It's really not our responsibility,'' she said.
Mrs. Woltenberg said Friday she did not know exactly how many names were on the list. But Commonwealth Attorney Don Buring, whose detective Roger Wells discovered the full list, confirmed the number at about 9,000.
Mrs. Woltenberg said the half of the warrants that authorities did not know about were older warrants that were always available on the computer system. That means if a police officer called in to check a person for warrants, those warrants would have popped up, too.
But she explained that though they were in the computer system, they were not included on printouts disseminated to police departments. The computer system, she said, only prints out what are known as the ''hot'' and ''warm'' lists, meaning those considered to be the most accurate information compared with the ''cold'' list.
Because the half lists being given to law enforcement regularly were so large, Mrs. Woltenberg said, no one noticed that thousands of older warrants were being forgotten.
''No, I did not know,'' she said.
Kenton County sheriff's deputies and FBI agents spent the latter half of 1996 attacking the most serious offenders on the list as part of the FBI-organized Safe Streets Task Force.
The federal agency's call to arms was the murder of Sandra Colston last spring in Fort Wright. She was killed by her estranged husband, Donald, a paraplegic Columns by The Enquirer's Rob Kaiser pointed out that Mr. Colston had been wanted for a year for failing to keep in touch with his parole officer.
The task force continues, but its warrant work was hampered by the withdrawal Jan. 1 of two Kenton County sheriff's deputies, or two-fifths of the unit. Sheriff Bill Steenken pulled the two men out because he said state law does not specify that warrant service is his office's job and because other deputies not on the task force were complaining that they were not receiving any of the federally funded overtime.
Sheriff Steenken has since authorized Deputy Pat Morgan to work with the FBI to find three or four fugitives designated by Mr. Buring as being wanted for serious crimes. Most of the 9,000, Mr. Buring says, are warrants for misdemeanor offenses such as theft and failure to pay court times. Some, however, are for people wanted on crimes such as rape.
The 9,000 figure puts into better perspective the warrant lists of Boone and Campbell counties, both substantially smaller than Kenton, which is the third-largest county in Kentucky. Before, it appeared that the area's smaller counties, each with about 5,000 outstanding warrants, had larger totals than Kenton.
Chief Browning, who has helped spearhead changes made in management of the list since The Enquirer called attention to the problems in December, could not be reached for comment late Friday about the size of the list or how he might try to figure out what agency should take over its maintenance.
''Somebody needs to maintain it,'' said Mr. Buring, who called the 9,000 number overwhelming. ''But I don't know who it is supposed to be.
''Whether there's one warrant or 10,000, the question we have to answer is, how do you manage it and what do we have to do to properly maintain it?''
Since the backlog came to light, the list has now been sorted alphabetically and by city, so officers can see which are for people who are thought to live in their jurisdiction.
Mr. Buring's office continues to work on the oldest felony warrants, some for offenses dating to 1982. The police departments that originally generated those warrants have been sent letters asking them to check over the information and advise Mr. Buring whether the crime appears to still be prosecutable and whether the information remains valid.
Bill Crockett, chief prosecutor for Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson, said the decision on who will manage the computer system now is probably up to Judge-executive Clyde Middleton.
Sheriff Steenken said Friday he would be seeking a legal opinion on whether his office is required to take over upkeep of the warrants system. He said he did not want to do the job, but that he would if an attorney advises that it is his responsibility.
But Mr. Crockett said the circuit court clerk is the logical person to handle it.
''For her not to do it makes no sense,'' Mr. Crockett said. ''It's maintenance of court records. No other office does that.''
Previous stories
Searchers will have updated suspect list Jan. 15, 1997.
Chief organizes warrant search Jan. 5, 1997.
Kenton to focus on most wanted Dec. 26, 1996
Warrant backlog worse in Boone, Campbell Dec. 22, 1996
Kenton police chief proposes special unit Dec. 19, 1996
Sheriff pulls deputies off FBI team Dec. 18, 1996
Lawmakers want answer to unserved warrants Dec. 17, 1996
4,200 unserved warrants in Kenton County Dec. 15, 1996
