Rochester, New York – April 16 - 19, 1008

Fugitive Safe Surrender in the Rochester/Monroe County area took place in mid-April 2008, under the leadership of Peter Lawrence, United States Marshal for the Western District of New York. The four-day operation resulted in the voluntary surrender of 209 individuals, bringing the total number of surrenders during the Marshals Service’s eight Fugitive Safe Surrender programs to approximately 6,700.

Senior Pastor Ronald Domina of Bethel Christian Fellowship agreed to host the surrender days in his church, where he was joined by fellow faith-based leaders of the program and members of the Rochester Police Department’s Clergy Response Team, Reverend Delores Simpson of First Genesis Baptist Church, Father Don Wollscheleger, Reverend Emmitte Myrick of the Helping Hand Missionary Baptist Church, Rabbi Philip Goldstein of the Monroe County Jail Ministry, Reverends Phil and Ruby Harlow, Bishop Sabou Matthias of The Prophet’s House, and Chaplain Tommy Davis of the New York State Chaplains Association.

Key judicial participants included the Honorable Patricia Marks, Supervising Judge of the Criminal Court for the 7th Judicial District, New York State Supreme Court Judges John Ark and Joe Valentino, Monroe County Court Judges Elma Bellini, John Geraci, and Alex Renzi, who also serves as the Supervising Town Court Judge.

Legal team partners included the offices of District Attorney Mike Green, Public Defender Timothy Donaher, and Conflict Defender Rick Youngman. Among the additional partners were the Rochester Police Department, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Monroe County Information Services, Monroe County Pre-trial Services, Monroe County Probation, the Monroe County Drug Treatment Court, the Monroe County Mental Health Court, the Rochester City Court, the Monroe County Court, and the Monroe County Superior Courts.

Preliminary results showed that 209 individuals surrendered over the program’s four days, and that twelve of those were wanted for felony crimes. Thirty-nine of the people who appeared at the church found that they had no active warrants against them, further illustrating the benefit of the program. Those individuals can now move forward in their lives and become productive members of society by obtaining driver’s licenses, and finding meaningful employment. In all, 217 warrants were cleared.