Bibles removed from courtrooms as precaution
NORRISTOWN » In a court of law the one item touched repeatedly by people is the Bible.
As courtroom clerks hold it, witness after witness place their hands on the Bible to take oaths to tell the truth.
In the age of Coronavirus Disease COVID-19, handling high touch surfaces like the Bible is being looked at with some caution.
On Wednesday, Montgomery County Court officials said Bibles will be removed from all courtrooms.
“It was just an observation by one of the judges that throughout the course of the day, the one item that was touched repeatedly by everyone that walked up to the witness stand was the Bible,” said Michael R. Kehs, court administrator in Montgomery County. “You don’t necessarily need the Bible, you can raise your right hand and take the oath.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “it may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Going forward, witnesses in Montgomery County will still be sworn but they won’t be required to have their hand on the Bible.
“They will still be sworn, but they physically won’t be touching the cover,” Kehs explained.
The removal of Bibles was just one measure court officials implemented on Wednesday. They also implemented immediate changes to court and jury operations as part of the county’s public health emergency response to COVID-19.
The recommendations come as state and county officials announced Montgomery County has 9 presumptive positive cases of coronavirus and the state has a total of 16.
In a memo sent from court administrators to judges, district court judges and court-related employees, officials said court employees will not attend off-site conferences or trainings. Court events or meetings, as distinguished from court hearings, will be rescheduled or held virtually.
Officials acknowledged some citizens summoned for jury duty in recent days have expressed a reluctance to appear for service, out of concern for being among large groups of people.
“We have been monitoring it daily. I would not characterize it as a problem,” Kehs said. “There have been a number of individuals who have expressed concern about serving as a juror in light of the coronavirus issue and any such jurors have been excused or rescheduled. But the numbers are probably two, four or five a day. It has not increased exponentially at this point.
“But we’re being proactive with this. So we’re going to reduce the number of jurors that we call in,” Kehs added.
The number of jurors summoned each day will be limited to 90, which will accommodate two panels of 45 from which jurors can be selected for trials.
Jurors will be required to sit in every other chair in the jury marshalling room, officials said.
“Social distancing, and the particular phrase we are using is minimizing exposure,” Kehs explained.
Health officials have recommended social distancing practices as a precaution during the coronavirus outbreak.
Staggered scheduling of jury selection, some days earmarked for criminal cases and some for civil cases, has been proposed.
The selection of all juries will take place in Courtroom A, the large ceremonial courtroom in the courthouse, to accommodate more space for prospective jurors, officials said.
Judges’ daily readings of pretrial and trial lists will be “staggered” by the hour “to avoid larger groups of litigants/attorneys in the courtrooms,” officials added.
All judges have been directed to conduct probation violation hearings via a video hookup with the county correctional facility or by scheduling them at the courtroom at the county jail, according to the memo.
Senior judges will be brought in to assist with protection from abuse and accelerated rehabilitative disposition program hearings.
Kehs thanked county employees for their patience and cooperation.
“Please be reminded that events are fluid and are subject to change as additional information is provided,” Kehs wrote in the memo to county employees.