Jury trials in Pueblo suspension extended as omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads

A jury trial suspension that began on Jan. 4 has been extended until Feb 11, according to Colorado 10th District Chief Judge Deborah Eyler.

The suspension is because of rising COVID-19 numbers as the omicron variant continues to ravage the state and county.

Data provided by the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment shows that Pueblo County has seen a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.

On the week of December 26, the agency reports 806 positive cases in Pueblo County. On the week of January 9, that number rose to 2,776.

Along with the general population, a number of defendants and attorneys alike have fallen ill over recent weeks, said the Chief Judge.

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"Some of the attorneys are sick, some of the defendants are sick, the jail is dealing some outbreak as well- I had five defendants from the jail yesterday scheduled to come on for pleas and sentencing and three of them were in quarantine, so that's also a factor," said Eyler.

Eyler stated that her criteria for lifting the restriction on jury trials is "primarily that there is a sustained downward trend in cases" and that the county gets back to where it was in cases before January's spike began.

From Jan. 18 to Feb. 3, there were 10 felony trials scheduled. However, Eyler said it is hard to tell how many trials might be affected exactly.

"The further out you get the more speculative it gets whether it would actually go, different things happen," she said. "Today I have pretrial readiness or trial cause on two cases that are set for trial a week after this.

"Sometimes you have those and they tell you, we're not ready to go to trial, or for whatever reason, we're going to dismiss the case, maybe someone asks for a continuance."

In county court, it is also common practice to schedule multiple trials to start the same day. On Jan. 4, there were 15 county court trials scheduled, and on Feb. 8, 11 trials were scheduled.

There are only two county court judges.

"That's pretty typical," Eyler said. "Between now and then, all kinds of things happen. They continue some, they dismiss some, they plead some out. It's really impossible to say what the suspension would do to county court trials, it's easier with felonies."

This is not the first time that trials have been suspended due to COVID. On March 16, 2020, trials across the state were suspended by order of Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court Nathan B. Coats.

In order to resume trials, districts were required to present a plan to conduct trials to be approved by the Colorado Supreme Court.

"I think we started back up in July of that year and suspended again in November," said Eyler. "We started up again then in January (2021) because we didn't see the spike over the holidays that we expected and have continued until this suspension."

Eyler noted that trials are not generally scheduled up against speedy trial deadlines, which allows the court a little bit of wiggle room for extraneous circumstances such as a brief suspension of jury trials.

For the Pueblo Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, this is nothing new, said Alby Singleton, head of the Public Defender's Office for Pueblo County.

"They predicted a backlog would occur after the trials resumed, criminal law always has a backlog because there are always too many cases for the DA's Office to always try- there's really not a huge difference, we've become accustomed to it," he said.

While Singleton said the Public Defender's Office focuses on getting speedy resolutions for their clients and protecting their rights, "this is a once in a 100-year thing that has distorted that," he said.

"But we're committed to working through this and optimistic that in 20 days from now we'll be back to trial and be able to do everything we haven't been able to do in the past," Singleton said.

District Attorney Jeff Chostner was not immediately available for comment.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at Jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Jury trial suspensions in Pueblo extended as COVID cases to rise