The county's new Domestic Violence Court kicked off Wednesday after all.
Court officials had indicated they might have to delay the startup because a $351,000 grant from the Governor's Office didn't include money for public defenders.
But the court launch went off as scheduled after county officials met Tuesday to discuss Public Defender Robert Hooker's concerns about the court, said Assistant Pima County Administrator Patricia Alvarez-Hurley.
The grant will allow one judge to handle all the county's misdemeanor domestic-violence cases in the hope of more consistency in sentencings and more accountability on the part of domestic-violence offenders.
The grant did not include funds for additional prosecutors or defense attorneys, but it will pay for a portion of the judge's salary, extra probation officers, investigators and the support staff.
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Although domestic-violence suspects will continue to be represented by contract attorneys, Hooker wanted the county to return the grant or give his office $688,000 to represent domestic-violence suspects.
He argued that the new program will result in higher defense costs because many offenders will be placed on supervised probation and required to meet with judges regularly.
Until now, most offenders were placed on unsupervised probation.
During Tuesday's hearing, Phil Maloney of the county's Office of Court Appointed Counsel was directed to monitor the court's defense expenditures over the next few months to determine if additional defense funding is needed, Alvarez-Hurley said.
"There are just too many positive things this court can offer, and we didn't want to allow it (the grant) to get away," Alvarez-Hurley said.
Hooker could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
