MORGANTOWN — In the past six months, civil process servers with the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department have delivered more than 3,000 papers, Sheriff Perry Palmer said.
The department is led by Frank DeWitt, who is helped by three part-time processors. The four are responsible for delivering criminal court and civil papers to the appropriate people.
The department operates on an annual budget of $122,000.
It’s a busy job. DeWitt said the exact number of people needing to be served varies each day. Sometimes it’s 25-30, other days there are only five.
Since December, roughly 3,300 papers have been served, about two-thirds of which were criminal court papers, such as subpoenas and summons. The rest were civil case related.
Only 340 papers in that period were unserved, Palmer said. DeWitt said that usually a paper doesn’t get served because the person has moved or died, but sometimes they just can’t be found.
“Other counties can’t believe how many we do,” DeWitt said.
Palmer praised DeWitt’s management of the department and said he can always trust DeWitt to get the job, whatever it is, done properly.
The process servers also serve defendants in Magistrate Court civil suits. plaintiffs have the option to pay $25 for the department’s services, Palmer said. Most of that fee, $23, goes to the county’s general fund while $2 goes to the deputy sheriff’s retirement fund.
Civil processors do not serve warrants, Palmer said. They are, however, uniformed and armed, though Palmer said deputies and processors can be distinguished by the color of their shirt — processors wear white.
Wearing the uniform creates a certain amount of risk, DeWitt said, though mostly people are friendly. The processors are trained to approach doors like other law enforcement officers, Palmer said. DeWitt said one thing he teaches his guys is to avoid windows.
“Go under them,” he said.
DeWitt can only remember one instance of someone becoming combative in the almost 30 years he’s been on the job. The incident happened while he was serving a writ of execution, commonly called a levy. A levy is when a defendant fails to pay a court-ordered judgment, DeWitt will find property belonging to the defendant which can be sold to cover the judgment.
DeWitt gathers information on the item, commonly vehicles, and informs the owner he or she can’t sell or get rid of the item. The item is then sold at a sheriff’s sale after being advertised in the newspaper at least twice, Palmer said.
The sales are always held at 1 p.m. and as long as the bill is paid by 12:59 p.m., the item isn’t sold, DeWitt said.
A subpoena was being served to a Granville man, as well as a levy on his guns and truck. DeWitt said he gave the man the subpoena without issue, but after explaining the levy the man slammed the door in his face.
“I was standing in the doorway,” he said.
DeWitt called for backup and by that time the man had come outside with a gun. Palmer, then a sheriff’s deputy, responded to DeWitt’s call and said “everyone showed up at that point.”
After a short standoff, the man was taken into custody without incident, but DeWitt said it was touch-and-go for about 30 minutes.
While incidents like that are rare, it’s a busy job. The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Tax Office works to process every paper that gets served, Palmer said. Kelly Palmer, chief tax deputy, has assigned a worker to process requests fulltime.
Without the tax office’s help, DeWitt said that all the process servers’ time would be spent doing paperwork.
DeWitt and his fellow process servers work a lot of evenings and Saturdays, because those are the best times to catch people at home, he explained.
He said he loves his job and the people he works with and when you have great people with you it’s easy to enjoy your job.
Follow The Dominion Post on Twitter @DominionPostWV. Email William Dean: wdean@dominionpost.com
