Getting your day in court has been complicated since COVID-19 shuttered courtrooms and halted jury trials in the spring of 2020 in an effort to ‘slow the spread.’
But with the number of COVID cases down and vaccinations on the upswing, Judge Michael Pritchett has approved 36th Judicial Circuit courtrooms advancing to phase 3 openings beginning Monday, allowing jury trials to soon resume regularly.
In practical terms, phase 3’ means up to 50 people can now be present in Butler and Ripley County courtrooms, enabling civil cases that have been backlogged awaiting jury trials to proceed.
“We’ve had to cancel several weeklong civil cases because of restrictions that we had on the number of people in the courtroom,’’ said Pritchett, the presiding judge over the 36th Judicial Circuit. “The main backlog that we are experiencing has to do with jury trials. We have had numerous jury trials that have been postponed due to the COVID – whatever you want to call it – mess.’’
In order to maintain social distancing guidelines, the courts will select jurors from jury pools gathered at the Black Rock Coliseum. Jurors selected to be seated will then travel by car to the courthouse.
“We don’t have a room in the courtroom to accommodate 50, 60 jurors while meeting social distancing guidelines,’’ Pritchett said.
In one October trial, involving a charge of unlawful use of a gun, “we were not able to use the jury box,’’ Pritchett said. Instead, jurors were seated on one side of the courtroom. “It worked out well.’’
Only two jury trials were held in Butler County in 2020, down 80% from the average 10 jury trials a year. Ripley had no jury trials. Other trials had been scheduled but didn’t occur because plea deals were reached, Pritchett said.
Criminal cases with defendants being held in jail took precedent due to their rights to a speedy trial though “in many cases, the speedy trial requirement was waived by the parties or the cases were resolved through a guilty plea,’’ Pritchett said.
With the number of new COVID cases declining, Pritchett has scheduled three jury trials every week beginning March 10 through January 2022. The increased jury schedule may mean Butler and Ripley residents will be more likely to be called for jury duty than in past years.
Between Feb. 2 and Feb. 16, Butler County only recorded 63 new COVID diagnoses, from a total of 4,166 to 4,229 cumulative cases, according to the Butler County Health Department.
There is no phase four, so the next step would be for courts to resume business as usual, allowing juries to be able to be selected at the courthouses due to the suspension of social distancing standards.