Last week’s spike in COVID-19 cases on the North Olympic Peninsula has halted felony jury trials for the rest of 2020 more than three weeks before New Year’s Day.
Superior Court judges in both Clallam and Jefferson counties have decided to wait until after Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 18 to hold jury trials but will continue to hold bench trials that don’t require masses of people to congregate.
Presiding Clallam Superior Court Judge Brent Basden said jury trials could start up again Jan. 19, continuing a moratorium on jury trials that began Nov. 23.
Superior Court Administrator Lacey Fors said 54 felony trials have been scheduled for between Monday and Wednesday, Jan. 13, the last day of that week that a trial would have been held before the holiday. Trials often are resolved before their dates by plea bargains or are postponed.
Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Keith Harper suspended all in-person criminal and civil jury trials on Nov. 20 until Jan. 22 due to caution against COVID-19 transmission, said Sophie Nordstrom, Superior Court administrator.
This includes 19 cases that had been set for trial, while 18 have already either been resolved, continued by counsel or stricken for non-appearance by the defendant, Nordstrom said.
“A good majority of jury trials are continued more than once and/or resolved prior to the trial date,” Nordstrom said Friday in an email.
“COVID-19 was the catalyst for clearing our calendars beginning November 30 2020 to January 22, 2021, however to say that COVID-19 would have been the only reason for continuing or striking a trial would be inaccurate.”
All Jefferson Superior Court non-jury trials and fact finding hearings will continue to be conducted, with parties and attorneys choosing to appear in person, by Zoom or by CourtCall — a courtroom videoconferencing platform — according to an announcement by Jefferson County.
All felony changes of pleas and sentencing shall be done by personal appearance in the Jefferson County Superior Court, said the announcement.
The announcement by Basden continuing jury trials that he and Judges Lauren Erickson and Simon Barnhart adjudicate continues a Nov. 23 order. That edict did not cover a more than three-week civil trial that concluded Thursday that began Nov. 11.
Cases set for trial are often rescheduled or resolved by plea agreement, court officials say.
Basden estimated there are about 20 jury trials a year in Clallam County.
He said he consulted with Health Officer Dr. Allison Unthank before Clallam judges decided to continue not holding jury trials.
“We spoke to other courts to see what they are doing, trying to get a sense of logistics of bringing that many people together to pick a jury,” Basden said.
“It just felt like that was just one area we needed to take about a month and let things try and settle back down.”
Getting 50 people together of different ages and health conditions to pick a jury did not seem like a good idea, he said.
“It is unfortunate that we can’t operate like we’ve always operated, but we continue to do what we can on the cases we get,” he said.
Clallam County District Court judge Dave Neupert said he will continue to assess this week whether to hold the six-person jury trials held in his court.
All Jefferson County District Court traffic and civil hearings will be on Zoom, said the county’s announcement.
Links for the District Court and the phone number for dialing in are on the county’s court webpage at https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/343/District-Court.
Jefferson County District Court payments may be deposited in the dropbox in the courthouse basement entry or be made by calling 360-385-9135 to arrange an appointment to drop off the paperwork, the announcement said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
