Franklin County court delays jury trials
Because of surging COVID-19 cases, Franklin County Common Pleas Court is suspending all jury trials until Feb. 1.
County residents who received a summons for jury duty for the weeks of Nov. 30, Dec. 7 or Dec. 14 should not report, Administrative Judge Stephen L. Mcintosh said Tuesday.
No jury-duty summons will be issued for the weeks from Dec. 21 through Jan. 25.
Mcintosh said the court’s 17 judges made the decision Monday during a meeting in which they received an update on the county’s COVID surge from Dr. Mysheika Roberts, Columbus health commissioner.
Franklin County is under a “red” Level 3 coronavirus alert, according to the state’s four-tiered system, and is on pace to reach a “purple,” or Level 4, designation next week.
“With the county being on a watch list for going purple, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, it doesn’t make sense to bring 120 (jurors) down here each week,” Mcintosh said.
All other court services and proceedings will continue as they have under a plan put in place on June 1, when the court resumed modified operations after suspending many of its functions in March at the beginning of the pandemic.
Courts across the state suspended jury trials from mid-march until June based on a section of the Ohio Revised Code that gives individual judges the power to continue cases beyond speedy-trial deadlines on “reasonable grounds,” which include an active public-health emergency like the coronavirus pandemic.
The same law would apply to this suspension of speedy-trial rights under a COVID prevention strategy that has the support of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’connor.
Common Pleas judges have presided over about two dozen jury trials since June 1, Mcintosh said, most taking places in courtrooms equipped with Plexiglass barriers designed to provide additional protection for jurors, witnesses, attorneys and court officers.
None of the trials was interrupted or derailed by Covid-related issues, he said.
“We’re just being proactive,” Mcintosh said.
Common Pleas judges in Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties have made similar decisions in recent weeks.
On Oct. 23, Hamilton County announced that Common Pleas jury trials were suspended until further notice. On Nov. 9, Cuyahoga County judges decided to suspend Common Pleas jury trials until at least Dec. 1.
jfutty@dispatch.com