Detroit owes crime victim's money

The Detroit Free Press reports that Wayne County courts are sitting on $4 million dollars of restitution that the court collected on behalf of victims of crime. Unfortunately the the county clerks office has done a miserable job of actually looking for the people who are owed the money. Consequently the money just sits in the government's coffers instead of being delivered to the people.

If you were involved in a court case and were awarded restitution payments and are still waiting for a check----You should assume that the government may be too lazy to track you down to mail you the check. I'd suggest that you'd read the FREEP article, and call the county prosecutor and the county clerk to see if the plantiff has made restitution .

Prosecutor Kym Worthy has tried to address the problem for years. She said her office does pass victim information to clerks and is willing to help track down victims, but the clerk's office has stopped asking for help.

Lost in the finger-pointing are the victims who aren't paid -- a grandmother, an autoworker, a student, a disabled adult, business owners, even police and fire departments. For all of them, justice is overdue.