Kosciusko County's court system is expanding in more ways than one, beginning today.

After years of planning, the local court system will add a fourth court to handle a bulging caseload resulting from the county's increased population.

But there are other changes, too. Consider the following:

• - The new Superior Court will include a staff of about four people and cost about $120,000 annually in local tax revenues to operate.

• - The prosecutor responsible for enforcing child support has been elevated from part time to full time.

• - Two new victims' assistance employees will double the number of similar positions first established less than two years ago. The new positions will be paid through grant money and revenues from child support enforcement.

"We've never seen anything like this," said Al Rovenstine, the county's sheriff of 14 years who has been familiar with the local judicial system for 26 years.

Business in the new court was expected to begin today, but officials admit it could take a while for the transition to be completed. In fact, inmates in work release and the jail have been asked to hold off on filing sentence modifications for a few weeks until things settle down.

The added court should help reduce the caseload in individual courts and speed up the process of adjudicating cases.

Two new judicial faces will usher in the new era.

Judge Duane Huffer leaves private practice after defeating longtime Superior Court Judge Robert Burner in the election. Joe Sutton, the youngest of the four judges at age 41, worked for several years in the prosecutor's office and is the first judge of the newly created Superior III courtroom.

They join Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed, who was elected two years ago, and Superior Court I Judge James Jarrette, the senior judge with 18 years experience on the bench.

With the new positions and court, office space is becoming an even bigger issue.

As a result, prosecutor David Kolbe said he remains uncertain where pretrial conferences will be conducted. Those used to be conducted in a courtroom during an afternoon, but will likely be somewhere in the basement, he said.

"It's a bit of a dilemma," he said.

The new victims' assistance workers will focus on crimes involving property and violence.

Byron Tinkey, the new prosecutor overseeing child support, said he plans to review options available to enforcement other than jail.

One option could be the use of work release. That would allow the county to penalize deadbeats without preventing them from paying child support.

With a new staff of judges in place, Rovenstine said the county is now better prepared to address two major issues - jail space and juvenile detention.

A committee already in place will likely become busier in 1997, he said.

"It's a two-pronged path. We have to look at the juvenile situation and the jail situation combined and make some decisions," Rovenstine said. [[In-content Ad]]