Courtrooms are slowly coming back to life

More courtrooms in the Bexar County justice complex will be opening this week, but judges and staff are still encouraged to work remotely as much as possible.

“The judiciary sees public safety to be the most important thing as we plan on opening the courts,” state District Judge Ron Rangel said.

There are still no jury trials and, because of social distancing, courts will be in session on alternating days on separate floors. But the courthouse will slowly be repopulated under a plan unveiled by Rangel last week.

Rangel, who presides over the 379th state District Court and serves as administrative judge for the civil, criminal and probate courts, noted that the courts will look different, compared with pre-pandemic days.

There are new barriers in courtrooms and common areas to ensure social distancing, plastic shields have been installed where there is likely to be face-toface contact, signs in halls and waiting areas mark required 6foot distances and hand sanitizer dispensers are located throughout the two court buildings — all designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Galleries of every court have already been marked off, every other row has been marked, and X’s placed where people can’t sit,” Rangel said.

Everyone in the buildings — including employees, visitors, defendants and attorneys — must wear masks.

The main part of the plan, created in conjunction with the state’s Office of Court Administration and the city’s Metropolitan Health District, along with other local officials and the judiciary, calls for limiting the number of people on each floor and in each courtroom.

According to the plan, all personnel who have been able to work outside the justice center will be asked to continue doing so.

Rangel said that while more hearings will be conducted in person starting Monday, the preferred method will be by video.

No judges, court staff, defendants, attorneys or visitors will be allowed in the building if they have a temperature above 100 degrees.

Perhaps the biggest change is the number of defendants who will be brought in to courts at the same time.

“Judges have agreed to alternate courts on separate floors to make sure there are as few people as possible in common areas,” Rangel said, adding that criminal courts would have no more than five defendants brought in from the jail in the morning and five in the afternoon.

Rangel has created a schedule that designates “jail docket days”

Bob Owen / Staff photographer Chad Sies of Bexar County’s Facilities Management Department carries a hand sanitizer unit to be placed in front of a courtroom on the third floor of the Bexar County Courthouse.