In our county, we have a Junior college that just commissioned its own police dept. The question is may the commssioners agree to pay a % of the fines collected to the college in exchange for those cases being filed exclusively in the JP court(class C's only). The college is located in the city limits and they could file their class C cases either place (PI's etc.)
My thought is that the intergov. agreement would provide a benefit to each entity....the county would get the cases it might not otherwise receive and the college would get a % of the fine it might not otherwise get. There agreement would not apply to class B's and above as there is no other place for those to be filed....those woould be filed in county court regardless.
Any thoughts?

"Buying" criminal cases from the police. Good heavens!

The Commissioners would need to be able to point to a specific statute that authorizes this, or they can't do it. What statute, if any, arguably authorizes this?

A.D.

It may sound worse than it really is.....the new police chief at the junior college is a sitting city councilman and does not want the appearance of any improper relationship existing for cases that might be properly filed in municipal court. The college was curious if a portion of the fine etc. could be returned to them to use in their educational foundation fund. The only way I could think of to accomplish that was an intergovermental ageement with some sort of exchange so the county was not merely giving money away. Thus, the exclusivity ageement was merely intended as a tool to allow some of the $ to flow back to the college.If you still have a problem with the scenario, can you think of any aother legal way to accomplish the goal? I could not find authority to just give back a portion of the fine,(other than some sort of intergov. agreement) but I admit, I have not completed my research.

The kick-back of fees IS the problem. It gives the governmental entities a financial stake in a particular outcome -- conviction. Not very even-handed looking to the accused to know that everyone in the courtroom gets a commission if he/she is convicted. I don't think you can overcome that unfortunate appearance with a local agreement.

It is the option of the police (or, where filed by a citizen directly, the citizen) where to file those class c's. If the JP court is the more accommodating, accessible, fair, and efficient court it is my experience that over time the police will probably choose to file all the cases they can there, barring some sort of uneven playing field (such as the muni equivalent of a hanging judge). If it is not the 'better' court from the perspective of the police, they will take it elsewhere.

But, each case filed by a city police officer in muncipal court has the same financial incentive to the city and thereby the officer....the same could be said for SO deputies and JP court. That money goes directly to the entity that employs the the officer each time a case is filed in the instances listed above. So, they also have a stake in the outcome of those cases.... It would not be an issue if the college had the ability to form their own court and keep the fines themselves. I agree that on the surface it looks odd but is there a legal issue with the proposed agreement?

If there is a statute that specifically authorizes it, you are ok. Otherwise, can't do it.