Jury trials to resume in Hunt County, but jurors won't be selected at courthouse
Apr. 3—If you have a jury summons next week, do not go to the Hunt County Courthouse.
For the first time in a year, juries are scheduled to be chosen Monday for felony trials in Hunt County.
The process of selecting the panel will be different and for the first time will not take place at the courthouse. Instead, in order to accommodate social distancing due to COVID-19, the selection will be conducted at the Greenville Municipal Auditorium, 2821 Washington Street. Jurors for trials to be conducted in the Hunt County Courts At Law will be chosen at the Texan Theater,2712 Lee Street.
Jury selection is scheduled Monday for two cases in the Hunt County District Court; a Fannin County man has been charged with orepeatedly sexually assaulting a child and a Farmersville man has been indicted on a charge of stealing a vehicle.
"They are both still on the docket," Hunt County District Attorney Noble D. Walker Jr. said Thursday afternoon. "We do intend to have a jury picked."
—Roger Jan Devine of Honey Grove, was arrested June 2, 2020 by the Hunt County Sheriff's Office on a charge of sexually assault of a child-continuous, victim under 14.
Devine has pleaded not guilty. The charge is a first degree felony, punishable upon conviction by a maximum sentence of from five to 99 years to life in prison.
—John William Kemmere II of Farmersville is charged on one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle. He was alleged to have stolen the vehicle on Oct. 7, 2019, the same day he was arrested. He has pleaded not guilty. The charge carries a maximum sentence upon conviction of up to two years in a state jail.
Walker said a decision on which case will proceed, if any, won't be made until Monday morning, but credited 196th District Judge Andrew Bench and 354th District Court Judge Keli Aiken for helping make it possible for jury trials to finally resume, after they were curtailed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"They have really worked hard to make this work," Walker said.
The courthouse only recently reopened to the public, after being closed for months due to the pandemic.
Once trials resume, there will also be changes in store for how the courts operate.
Judges and court staff will be required to wear face coverings in all public areas of the courthouse. The only exception will be for those judges who have a plexigass divider installed on all three sides of their bench. If the judge chooses to take their mask off, the area they occupy must be cleaned before another judge uses the space.
Anyone with the courts who is running a temperature or who may have symptoms of COVID-19 will not be allowed to enter the building.
The jury boxes and seating areas for both the 196th and the 354th district courtrooms have also been shifted to allow for social distancing guidelines.
