(a) An offender may be assessed a nonrefundable application fee when the offender is approved for the pretrial diversion program. The amount of the assessment for participating in the program shall be in addition to any court costs, fees, and assessments for the Crime Victim's Compensation Fund, Department of Forensic Sciences assessments, drug, alcohol, or anger management treatment required by law, and any costs of supervision, treatment, and restitution for which the offender may be responsible. A schedule of payments for any of these fees may be established by the city council in amounts to be determined by the city council in its sole discretion.
(b) The application fees, as determined by the city council, shall be applied to the following offenses:
(1) Driving under the influence (DUI).
(2) Theft of property in the third degree.
(3) Other misdemeanor offenses as determined by the city council.
(c) The application fee shall be allocated to the general fund of the city except that a minimum of 25 percent shall be directed to the City of Huntsville's Advanced Technical Data Fund and a minimum of 25 percent shall be directed to the City of Huntsville Indigent Treatment Fund, as established by the city council.
(d) An applicant offender may not be denied access into the pretrial diversion program based solely on the inability of the offender to pay the application fee. Application fees may be waived or reduced for just cause, including indigency of the offender, at the discretion of the city judge. Any determination of the indigency of the offender for purposes of program fee mitigation shall be made by the city judge, but any mitigation shall be done only upon the determination by the city judge that there is no reasonable likelihood within the reasonably foreseeable future that the offender will have the ability to pay the application fee.
Last modified: May 3, 2021