CT attorneys pushing to get back in courts amid mounting case backlog

NEW HAVEN – Nearly three months after state courthouses were reduced to handling a severely limited number of criminal cases because of the coronavirus pandemic and some courthouses were closed completely, many defense attorneys are growing increasingly frustrated over the mounting backlog and the toll this is taking on defendants.

“The Judicial Branch has ignored private lawyers as stakeholders,’ said Jay Ruane of Ruane Attorneys in Shelton.

“Our complaints are falling on deaf ears,” Ruane said. “We’re 10 weeks into this and they’ve done nothing except saying ‘We’re working on it.’’

Ruane said he has 47 criminal cases pending in Meriden Superior Court, whose courthouse has been closed since mid-March.

Moreover, Ruane said, “We have 13 attorneys in our firm with700 criminal cases pending in Connecticut.”

The state Judicial Branch administers the court system.

Because of the delays and backlogs, Ruane said, “Our clients are being kept in jail longer. They’re sitting there, waiting for their day in court.”

Ruane is concerned that when defendants finally do get hearings, they will be more inclined to plead guilty rather than fight the charges because they need to get back to their jobs and other facets of their lives.

New Haven Public Defender Beth Merkin, whose office is at New Haven Superior Court, noted: “This holding pattern is a problem. Our clients are sitting in jail and there’s little movement or activity on their cases. And it’s a horrible time to be incarcerated.”

Seven Connecticut inmates have died from COVID-19 and hundreds more have tested positive. The most recent inmate death was a 60-year-old man held at Osborn Correctional Institution, according to the state Department of Correction.

But there are signs of a slow return to expanded operations in the courthouses. Chief Court Administrator and Judge Patrick Carroll III recently issued a news release that announced a “partial resumption of operations” in three courthouses that will re-open June 8; the Middlesex Judicial District Courthouse in Middletown, Rockville’s Geographic Area No. 19 Courthouse and the Litchfield Judicial District Courthouse in Torrington.

But some courthouses, including the one in Meriden, will remain closed, Carroll said, “until further notice.”

Ten courts in Connecticut’s state system have stayed open throughout the pandemic, although with cutbacks in hours and in the types of cases handled. These are the Supreme and Appellate courts; the Judicial District courthouses in Bridgeport, New Britain, New Haven and New London; the Geographical

Area courthouses in Hartford and Waterbury; and the juvenile courts in Hartford and Bridgeport.

The courthouses that have remained open are operating on limited hours: Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those courthouses will continue to be closed Tuesdays and Thursdays “until further notice.”

Safety

Carroll said the open courthouses will continue to handle only “priority one business.” This includes arraignments of defendants held on bond; arraignments of defendants in domestic violence cases; emergency child custody matters; and juvenile detention hearings.

“The Judicial Branch we left behind as this crisis emerged will not be the same Judicial Branch we return to,” Carroll said.

“Masks, social distancing,

hand sanitizers, limitations on the number of people allowed in courtrooms and courthouses and enhanced sanitization protocols are all going to be with us for the foreseeable future,” the judge said. “The remote processing and handling of court matters via video conference will now be routine components of the court system.”

Carroll added, “This remains a fluid situation and frankly, there are some issues for which we don’t yet have solutions. Our planning process will be deliberate and careful, guided by the desire to provide for the health and safety of everyone who works in or enters a courthouse. There is no other way to do it.”

Carroll was asked by the New Haven Register to address the complaints of private criminal defense attorneys such as Ruane that the Judicial Branch has not communicated well with them.