Court Records Will Soon Be at Your Fingertips

There won’t be any smiling faces or pleasant banter about the latest hot case, but local court officials promise that a new records section will be a friendly place.

In a couple of weeks--give or take a couple of weeks--the Ventura County Superior Court hopes to have its virtual public records counter up and running on the Internet.

The site, which is several months behind schedule, will provide access on traffic stuff, infractions and other criminal records for information about charges, a case’s status and hearing dates.

“I wish it was already out there, but this has been a technological challenge,” said Margie Borjon-Miller, a Superior Court deputy executive officer.

The biggest glitch has been trying to create a way to let people access public records without compromising the security of thousands of confidential documents.

Basically, officials want to prevent hacking.

Right now, anyone who goes to the online counter through the court’s main Web site runs smack into a “firewall,” which is computer-ese for “no admittance.”

Court techies are fighting that problem by installing a separate file server that allows people to view records at a virtual counter that is essentially outside the wall, Borjon-Miller said.

Add to that headache the fact that court officials had been waiting for a legal opinion from the county’s lawyers, who recently gave the go-ahead.

Until it’s up and running, there’s still a real counter manned by real people at the courthouse.

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Two Oxnard women were arrested recently on suspicion of trying to steal several hundred dollars from the bank account of a countywide police tip hotline.

Janet Fernandez Pecatoste, 23, called Ventura County Crime Stoppers with a good lead on a case a few weeks ago. For her trouble, the cops said she would be paid $450.

Well, Pecatoste did as she was told and went to a Port Hueneme bank branch to collect the money. But then, authorities say, she and her 17-year-old cousin went double- and triple-dipping.

A day after collecting the reward money, authorities allege, Pecatoste collected it again at a Camarillo branch of the same bank and then sent her cousin to a third branch in Oxnard to try to get another $450.

Employees at the Camarillo branch alerted police after realizing their mistake, so deputies weren’t surprised when the Oxnard bank called and said someone was trying to claim the reward money for a third time.

The cousin, whom police would not identify because of her age, was arrested at the Oxnard bank, and Pecatoste was taken into custody when she arrived at the police station to pick up her cousin.

“There needs to be a clear message to the public that anyone who attempts to defraud Crime Stoppers will be apprehended and prosecuted,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Bailey said.

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We may not know who the next president is, but there are still plenty of people handling world affairs--even one guy from Ventura County.

Sheriff’s Capt. Gary Pentis, head of the Ojai station, is in Russia this week teaching law enforcement leaders there how to combat illegal drugs.

Pentis flew to Moscow a week ago with a group from the Camarillo-based International Renaissance Foundation, which offers education and support services to abandoned children in the former Soviet Union.

According to the foundation’s Web site and media accounts, more than 800,000 children have been placed in orphanages in Russia. This has led to high drug rates among the young, which in turn has fed drug sales and organized crime rings.

Gary Pentis is advising leaders on how to create narcotics task forces and how police agencies in the U.S. work with the courts and schools to stop drug use.

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Holly J. Wolcott can be reached at 653-7581 or at holly.wolcott@latimes.com.