LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Superior Court is asking the state for the ability to temporarily extend trial deadlines as it works to implement new guidance on its operations that it has received from the county’s Public Health officer.
Court Executive Officer Krista LeVier told Lake County News that the court has submitted a request for an emergency order from California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
As it works to adjust its operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, LeVier said the court has received new guidance and recommendations from Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace regarding jury trials “which we are attempting to put in place as quickly as possible.”
One of the new recommendations that LeVier said Pace gave the Superior Court is to consider conducting jury selection for trials at an offsite location.
The request Presiding Superior Court Judge Michael Lunas made to Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye is under the auspices of Government Code section 68115, which covers judicial emergencies and would allow for proceedings to be held in a location other than the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.
Government Code section 6811 states, “When war, insurrection, pestilence, or other public calamity, or the danger thereof, or the destruction of or danger to the building appointed for holding the court, renders it necessary, or when a large influx of criminal cases resulting from a large number of arrests within a short period of time threatens the orderly operation of a superior court location or locations within a county,” the presiding judge may ask the chair of the Judicial Council – in this case, the chief justice – for permission to hold proceedings in other locations, transfer cases to adjacent counties, extend judicial timelines and other measures.
“The request is to provide authority to extend trial deadlines under Penal Code section 1382 up to 30 days,” LeVier said.
Penal Code section 1382 sets California’s speedy trial rules, which include bringing defendants in criminal cases to trial within 60 days of arraignment or indictment, or in misdemeanor or infraction cases, within 30 days of arraignment or entry of plea.
“The court has an obligation and duty to protect the defendants right to a jury trial, while at the same time taking all reasonable precautions to minimize the risk of transmission of COVID-19,” LeVier said.
To that end, she said the court has been working closely with Dr. Pace and Public Health throughout its response to the pandemic, which included a shutdown in March, the adoption of video conferencing and a return to some in-person proceedings in the months since.
Emergency orders the Judicial Council issued in March allowed courts to put off trials for several months by extending the constitutional right to a speedy trial by 90 days. The Judicial Council cleared courts to resume trials in June.
The court, under the leadership of Lunas and LeVier, has implemented numerous health and safety measures including masking, social distancing signage and taping off seats in courtrooms, hand sanitizer dispensers, rearranging the public window and computer kiosk at the court clerk’s office, and video conferencing in order to protect staff and members of the public.
In court this week, Lake County News observed all court staff, District Attorney’s Office personnel, attorneys, defendants and members of the public wearing masks and observing social distancing in adherence to the rules, although the tables for defendants and prosecutors were not being wiped down between cases.
Even though the court has tried to minimize the size of groups in courtrooms at any one time, several local attorneys told Lake County News that fluctuating caseloads have made it challenging to enforce social distancing. They described scenarios where as many as two dozen people were in a courtroom at once, and other times just a handful.
The court had planned to begin trials on July 8 but, up until this week, all of the cases had been resolved or rescheduled, LeVier told Lake County News.
“The court has been reviewing our plan to conduct jury trials with Dr. Pace for some time. In recent discussions, Dr. Pace recommended some additional precautions that the court could consider in an effort to make the jury trial process as safe as possible for all involved,” LeVier said.
Those recommendations included the offsite jury selection, which has for years been a challenge in the cramped quarters of the Lake County Courthouse’s fourth floor. In past jury selections, the size of juror pools required that jury selection take place downstairs in the Board of Supervisors’ chambers.
In June, the Judicial Council’s Pandemic Continuity of Operations Working Group issued a resource guide that suggested – among other adaptations such as using technology for juror prescreening and reworking jury assembly procedures to allow for smaller pools – that jury selection could be moved from courthouses to offsite locations that accommodate larger groups.
As for moving to another location, “The court has begun investigating that possibility; however that will take time to accomplish,” LeVier said.
With jury trials scheduled to go forward on Wednesday, Aug. 19, LeVier said it was not possible to get the new measures suggested by Pace in place in time.
That led to the court’s submission of the emergency order request, LeVier said.
“The Judicial Council staff indicated it might be a day or two before we have a response from the chief,” LeVier said Wednesday.
More information about the court’s operations can be found on its website.
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Lake County Superior Court seeks emergency order to temporarily extend trial deadlines
- Elizabeth Larson
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