The magistrate court at Fort Knox is reminding law offenders at the installation that they must attend their day in court or face more severe consequences.
"The magistrate court presides over Fort Knox court cases, and we judge anything from traffic violations to Class A misdemeanors," said Kateri Silveira, a paralegal specialist with the Fort Knox Magistrate Court. "We are a court of law, much like any other court. The penalties are the same across the board, [except that] we use both state and federal statutes."
Silveira said the notion that magistrate court can be avoided without consequences is totally false.
"[It's] the worst thing to think that, 'If I just ignore a citation, it will go away,'" Silveira said. "We will help to the best of our ability, but this is not just going away.
"The problem just gets bigger and bigger, until other people need to get involved."
Part of Silveira's job is tracking cases that come before the court. Law enforcement gets the ball rolling by serving the ticket. Silveira said she then tracks the ticket once the case is administratively closed and a court date is assigned.
"We also track every time that you've failed to appear," she said.
Another part of her job is ensuring defendants know about their day in court, something she said may not be wanted but is still needed.
"There are those people who want to push this to the wayside and don't want to deal with it," Silveira said. "We've become very proactive with it. We're even reaching out to notify others in their sphere that this might affect."
The list of those who could be contacted can get long, according to Silveira.
"If you miss court, we're sending out 'Failure to Appear' notices to your commander, your employer, your spouse or parent."
These processes are not meant to be vindictive, Silveira said, but are revived measures used to resolve an issue before it gets out of hand.
"We're not putting an individual on blast. We're putting other people who might also be affected by this on notice," Silveira said. "The [offender] has to face the inevitable, and the sooner they do, the better for everyone."
Silveira said her job puts her in the middle between the prosecution and the defense.
"I assist the individual and their attorneys, but I also provide information about the details of the case to the prosecutors," she said.
She explained how those details could weigh in favor of the defense.
"When I receive your citation, you go on the docket just like everyone else, and you're just a piece of paper at this point," Silveira said. "We don't know anything about you until you tell us about your specific circumstance."
Silveira said members of the magistrate court are willing to listen if defendants choose to speak.
"We're all human, and we've all had bad days," Silveira said. "Not everyone who leaves court will be happy with what happens here, but letting us know the circumstances of your particular case, or that you need to change your court date, is going to be far better for you than missing your court date.
"We don't want to kill anyone's career, but we're not going to just let an offense go."
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