Thurston County courts suspend jury trials as COVID-19 cases rise again
Thurston County District Court suspended jury trials for the foreseeable future on Wednesday as COVID-19 cases rise.
Separately, Superior Court suspended jury trials through at least Jan. 7, according to a notice from Judge John Skinder.
Presiding District Court Judge Brett Buckley ordered the change on Wednesday. The formalized order does not set a date when jury trials may restart. However, the court hopes the stay will last only through February at the latest, according to Court Executive Frankie Peters.
The decision was made after receiving guidance from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services, Peters said. COVID-19 cases have been on the rise as the more transmissible Omicron variant and established Delta variant spread throughout the nation.
PHSS reported two deaths and 601 COVID-19 cases between Dec. 20-26. As of Thursday, the county has added 1,318 cases to the week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 2. Even with the week still incomplete, this is the highest number of cases the county has reported for a single week.
District Court will resume jury trials as soon as they receive favorable advice from public health professionals, according to Peters. For now, officials expect a spike in COVID-19 cases in the aftermath of the December holidays.
Between Jan. 2-15, state data shows the county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached a peak of 314.4 before gradually declining through mid-March.
For a time, that case rate was the highest the county had seen, but cases began to skyrocket in the summer. Between Aug. 19 to Sept. 1, the county’s case rate reached the current record of 523.
The latest data indicates the county had a case rate of 411 between Dec. 7-20.
For the next couple of months, District Court will conduct virtual court proceedings via Zoom unless the court orders a specific case to take place in person.
“At this time, the courthouse will remain open to the public, but we will be continuing to encourage all parties to appear virtually and to utilize the electronic services provided through the court’s website,” Peters said.
Visitors must wear face coverings and physical distance, according to the order.
District Court previously suspended jury trials from March 2020 to May 2021 after implementing new COVID-19 safety measures, the Olympian reported.
Superior Court suspended jury trials at the start of the pandemic and later tried to restart them in September and October of 2020. No cases went to trial between October 2020 and March 2021, but they resumed thereafter.
The suspension of jury trials has led to substantial case backlogs that the courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys have struggled to manage.
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
