Court helps people clean slate

Ethan Robinson said he got to the doors of Topeka Municipal Court at 5:30 a.m. Friday, ensuring he was first in line for Clean Slate Day, which helps people with such issues as outstanding warrants and court fines.

Robinson, 35, said he was there to take care of a warrant and issues relating to his driver's license and a missed code compliance court date.

Before the doors opened at 9 a.m., a line of about 150 people stretched around S.E. 8th and Monroe.

Bob Adams arrived prepared with a green outdoor chair. He said he had to clear up some traffic tickets.

"I couldn't pass up the opportunity," Adams said. "I think it's great."

This is the third time the city of Topeka has held the event and the first time Municipal Court Judge Lori Dougherty-Bichsel, who was appointed last October, has participated.

"We have a lot of aging cases, people that have outstanding warrants from even several years ago, and so what this does is it gives them an opportunity to come out, get those taken care of so they don't have to worry about being arrested on an old warrant," she said. "If they have a case that needs to set up a payment plan, they can get that set up today so they can really start taking care of any issues that they have."

Dougherty-Bichsel said she also sees many cases involving driving with a suspended license. Clean Slate Day offers the opportunity for people to see if they can get a restricted or reinstated license, which opens up job opportunities, she said.

"It's exciting to get people in here, help them out and just make them feel like they accomplished something today," she said.

Robinson was in and out by 9:15 a.m. While he said he wasn't able to clear up all of his issues, he was relieved to learn that a warrant hadn't been issued.

The Topeka Community Foundation provided a $3,500 grant to help people pay outstanding fines and fees.

Representatives from community organizations provided information about employment, housing and other services.

Dougherty-Bichsel also said she had read a report published Wednesday on municipal court bond, fines and fees.

"I'm happy to say that we're doing pretty well on most of them," she said. "There's definitely some areas for improvement, so I'm going to go through each one of those and make some suggestions and see what we can do to make sure we are doing everything we can to preserve people's due process rights."