LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An important tool to notify victims of crimes isn't always working.
The Victim Information and Notification Everyday — or VINE — system, is supposed to automatically send notifications to a victim when an inmate is released or has a court date changed, among other important information.
But the system has been plagued with outages and other issues since 2021, prompting prosecutor's offices to use their resources to notify victims or their families.
Sometimes people aren't notified at all.
"You've already been victimized by a crime, you take off, you come to court, and they tell you it's not happening (or) it's happening another day, so you take off another day," said Dorislee Gilbert, the assistant county attorney and chief of the Special Victims Unit in Jefferson County. "So it's like being revictimized over and over and over and for victims of crime. It doesn't feel fair."
WDRB News requested the outages from April 2023 to 2024 through the Kentucky Department of Corrections. WDRB found pages of VINE outages at Kentucky jails. While some were fixed in minutes, others took days, weeks and even months.
For example, Kentucky River Regional Jail had an outage for about three weeks last June. Simpson County Detention Center's outage lasted about two months last summer. The Oldham County Detention Center had eight outages from February to April. Louisville Metro Corrections had three outages on April 15.
Outages are also listed on the VINE website. There was a VINE outage for the Oldham County Detention Center on May 30.
The VINE system has for years been a way for victims and their families to keep tabs on the defendant in their case.
'Traumatizing'
Pictures of Caleb Hallet fill his family's Lexington home. His mother, Nicole Hallet said her 18-year-old son was a typical teenage kid who's just graduated high school.
Her tattoo on her arm is dedicated to her son, flowers on the shirt that they buried him in.
Caleb Hallet was killed in 2016 in what his mom called a "robbery gone wrong.."
In February, her son's case was finalized.
"I relive that morning every day when I open my eyes," Hallet said. "For the last 2,945 days, it is like a slideshow of the events of that final day of January 9th."
The judge formally sentenced four men convicted in the Hallet's robbery and murder. Marquess Smith was sentenced to 40 years. A jury found him guilty of murder, robbery and assault related charges. Prosecutors said he was the one who shot and killed Caleb Hallet.
Marique Sturgis was sentenced to 35 years. The jury found him guilty of complicity of manslaughter and assault and robbery related charges.
Christopher Allen, whom the suspect called the mastermind behind the whole thing, entered a plea deal and was sentenced to 20 years.
Ricky Auxier had also entered a plea deal and was sentenced to 10 years for his involvement.
"Now, it's the process of where are they going now and how am I notified," Hallet said. "There are four of them."
She relies on VINE, which was actually created after a Louisville murder. Mary Byron was raped, stalked, then shot and killed on her 21st birthday in 1993. Her ex-boyfriend, Donavon Harris, who was charged with her rape, was waiting for her to leave work after he was released from jail earlier in the day.
No one told Byron he was free.
"She believed he was still in custody," Henderson County Prosecutor Steve Gold said. "Had VINE been available to give her notification that he was out, that wouldn't have happened."
"VINE was very helpful," Hallet added. "It would let us know about upcoming court dates that we had if they were ever moved."
Victims have been notifying county attorney offices across the state about the ongoing problems.
Back in September, at the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary in Frankfort, legislators wanted answers from the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts.
"This is not acceptable," Kentucky State Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, said at the meeting. "This should be fixed."
"Victims can get automatic texts that their Amazon package is 10 houses away," Gold said. "They should once again be able to get one when a court date changes."
"The problem we had was, in 2021, we starting hearing from the vendor that they were changing their platform," said Katie Comstock, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts. "Instead of deleting the data, they moved it to another database. They essentially wanted more of a data dump. That was a lot of really confidential and important data. ... Instead of deleting the data, they were moving it to another database."
So the AOC then stopped sharing the data with VINE and victims were no longer able to receive or sign up for court notices. That started in 2021 and many had hoped it would be fixed soon.
"However, I don't want you to think victims aren't notified at all," Comstock said. "It's just not automatic, prosecutors have access to AOC's Court Net. It provides access to upcoming court hearings 24 hours a day."
"Crime victims ought to be able to benefit from the system that functions and functions well and shouldn't be a burden on them," Kentucky Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, said.
Since 2021, victims advocates instead are having to call victims to let them know of court date changes.
"So in our unit, the Special Victims Unit, we have five staff members and their primary responsibility is to communication to victims," Gilbert said. "They are making hours of calls, notifying people of court dates.
"The fact that it's so much easier for the defendant to get that information if their court date is changed at the last minute, he's notified. Everybody knows his trial isn't going to happen next week. But for the victim who this is a big part of their life, it's something they want justice for and they're not getting the same information. It feels like a slight from the system and for many of them, it's a safety concern."
Comstock denied WDRB's request for an interview.
"Victims currently have the option to view upcoming court dates by going to the Judicial Branch (Kentucky Court of Justice) website, clicking on the prominently featured 'Find a Case' icon and searching by the defendant’s name or case number," Jim Hannah, communications director for the AOC, said in an email to WDRB. "Additional court case information may be provided by contacting the assigned prosecutor’s office."
"Prosecutors play a crucial role – and do a great job of – updating victims throughout the criminal process.
"The Unified Prosecutorial System (UPS) recently received funding to implement a new unified case management system for both the commonwealth’s attorneys and county attorneys, which is anticipated to enhance their ability to notify victims.
"Regarding inquiries about the vendor responsible for VINE, we continue to explore all options to provide effective service delivery. Currently, VINE only provides offender custody and release information provided by the Department of Corrections. Inquiries regarding current VINE outages and their causes should be directed to the DOC or the vendor."
Hallet said she wants VINE to be up and running like it was before 2021 with the court information.
"It's definitely more traumatizing to research and figure it out on your own," she said. "It should never been that way for the victim."
And there are other issues with VINE. Sometimes, it's not working at all. People will get text messages when there's an outage and other text messages when it's working again.
Nemes said he plans to call AOC officials back to the committee and ask them why the issue hasn't been corrected.
"All I care about is the victims need to get the information," Nemes said. "You've got an agreement that you like. If they won't do their job, sue them but get it done now."
Hallet wants it fixed soon too.
"That would help us victims stay in the loop," she said.
WDRB reached out to VINE and the company behind it, Appriss. They have not responded.
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