PARIS — Oxford County is expected to contribute funding to support a specialist in restitution payments at the District Attorney’s Office in Auburn beginning next year. 

In an appeal to county commissioners at their meeting Tuesday, Norman Croteau, the district attorney responsible for Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties, said funding the position locally is necessary after his office failed to receive an expected $15,000 federal grant this year. 

Although commissioners have already enacted a 2014 budget and it is too late to add funding for the position this year, Croteau said all three counties are expected to share the cost of the position beginning next year.

In an interview Wednesday, Croteau said a proportionate share of the position’s cost, approximately $13,000, will be included in the DA’s budget for Oxford County next year.

A court may order a criminal to pay restitution to compensate victims for injury or loss. The vast majority of restitution payments come from property crimes like theft and burglary, Croteau said.

Restitution payments are usually collected as part of probation, but the DA’s office is responsible for collecting the balance of restitution after probation is complete.

In the last year, his office has had more than $300,000 in restitution to victims, $114,000 in Oxford County alone, Croteau told commissioners. 

“Restitution is a very important thing for victims of crime and that’s why we want to get as much of it as we possibly can as soon as we possibly can,” he said.

About 20 years ago, the district attorney offices in the three counties ran separate restitution programs with separate accounts to deposit payments, despite the fact they were in the same prosecutorial district, Croteau explained. 

As caseloads increased in the separate offices, less time was devoted to recovering owed restitution, leading the DA’s office to establish a restitution manager in the Androscoggin County Court House about 10 years ago to record and redistribute the restitution payments collected by the other two counties.

About half of the specialist’s time is spent on Androscoggin County cases, with the remaining time split between cases from Franklin and Oxford counties, Croteau said.

The DA’s office initially received a long-term federal grant to fund the position. A few years ago, the annual grant was reduced to $15,000, leaving Androscoggin County to pick up the tab for the remainder. 

This year, his office didn’t receive the grant at all, Croteau said. Androscoggin County Commissioners funded the missing funds in its 2014 budget, passed last month, but determined that without grant assistance, the other two counties should contribute to the position. 

A recent change in state law that puts more responsibility for restitution collection onto the DA’s office will make the position even more critical in years to come, he told commissioners.

“That means the amount of restitution we’re going to be collecting as the years go by is going to increase,” Croteau said. “It also means we need to make sure we have a centralized system in place that is capable of tracking all of this over a period of time.”

pmcguire@sunjournal.com

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