By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HARPERSVILLE—After three years without, Harpersville may once again have a municipal court. The Harpersville Town Council unanimously voted to establish a municipal court following a public hearing during an Oct. 5 council meeting.

The Harpersville Municipal Court was abolished in 2012 following a lawsuit brought against the town by four former inmates claiming civil rights violations and egregious bond amounts and fines. After reviewing deposition testimony, retired Shelby County Circuit Judge Hub Harrington described the municipal court as “a debtors prison” and a “judicially sanctioned extortion racket,” in a July 11, 2012 order.

Since that time, Harpersville has operated without a municipal court, placing additional strain on the city’s police force and budget, Harpersville Mayor Theoangelo Perkins said.

“All other municipalities in the county that have their own police force have a court,” Perkins said. “A court helps to make sure the laws and ordinances of Harpersville are enforced.”

Without a municipal court, Harpersville police officers must travel to Columbiana to swear tickets. Harpersville Police Chief Jimmy Macon estimated each officer travels to the county seat around 10 times per month.

“When we send an officer (to Columbiana), they’re gone anywhere from one hour to three hours, depending on what it is,” Macon said.

These extended periods with one less officer in the field place strain on six-man Harpersville Police Department.

“(A municipal court) will free up my officers from having to go to Columbiana at least once a week,” Macon said, noting this will improve the department’s ability to keep the town safe.

Minimizing trips to Columbiana will also save the town money in overtime to officers and gas mileage. Perkins estimated the Harpersville Police Department spends an estimated $12,000 each year in gas to drive to and from Columbiana.

“We are wearing these officers out and we’re killing the city’s budget with overtime,” Macon said. “We don’t have the man power to do what we need to do.”

A municipal court will also allow the Harpersville Police Department to enforce municipal ordinances. According to Macon, although the county court has been helpful to Harpersville, it does not enforce municipal ordinances.

“There’s a lot of ordinances that we could enforce that we can’t because we don’t have a court,” Macon said.

The Harpersville Municipal Court will have entirely new personnel, Perkins said, including a judge and prosecutor.

Before it can be established, the Harpersville Municipal Court must be approved by the Shelby County Circuit Court. Once established, the court “will operate in accordance to state law,” Perkins explained.

The target date for the reopening of the Harpersville Municipal Court is Jan. 16, 2016.

“We do feel comfortable that the right personnel can be found to run our court in a good fashion,” Perkins said. “The things that happened three years ago should not be the end of the story. The end of the story should be that we have a good court system running in Harpersville.”