Jury trials sus ended in Jefferson, Ail in counties
A small outbreak of the coronavirus among court staff in the First Judicial District and rising cases in Jefferson and Gilpin counties prompted Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington on Friday to suspend all jury trials until January 2021.
Three court employees have tested positive for COVID- 19 and 12 additional staff members have been quarantined, Pilkington wrote in the Friday order, which suspended all jury trials in Jefferson and Gilpin counties until at least Jan. 18.
“This has had a significant impact on the District’s ability to conduct its business, including trials,” Pilkington wrote of the outbreak.
With the suspension, the First Judicial District joins courts in Boulder and in Denver, which have also suspended their jury trials until 2021 amid the escalating threat of COVID- 19.
The First Judicial District had been conducting trials since the statewide moratorium on most trials was lifted in August, and had conducted 22 jury trials in district court and 50 in county court. Before issuing Friday’s decision, Pilkington had already substantially limited jury trials during the holiday season, requiring that they be started and finished in the same week, and prohibiting trials all together during weeks following Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“Most other jurisdictions in the state have suspended jury trials through much of the holiday season,” Pilkington wrote in the order. “Public health experts repeatedly caution that COVID- 19 will spread as families and friends gather during the holidays.”
Jefferson County will on Monday move to the second- highest level of coronavirus restrictions as the region sees a major increase in cases, and Pilkington noted that cases are also on the rise in Gilpin County, although not at the same alarming pace.
The suspension of jury trials in the First Judicial District and in courts across the Front Range will exacerbate an already looming backlog of jury trials after nearly all trials were stopped earlier this year, but chief judges have found it is impossible to safely conduct jury trials in the current conditions.