Chatham County courts will remain under tight COVID-19 restrictions despite state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby’s loosening of statewide emergency directives earlier this month, Resident Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour said in an exclusive interview with the News + Record.
What’s not changed: still no jury trials, which have been deferred for several months.
In practice, Chatham courts, under Baddour’s supervision, are still functioning as they did when former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley presided over North Carolina’s judicial system.
“At this point, nothing has changed under (Chief Justice) Newby’s most recent emergency directives,” Baddour said. “The difference in the two, functionally, is that the statewide freeze on jury trials has ended and that decision is now a local decision.”
Under Beasley’s administration, suspension of jury trials was mandated statewide — for each of North Carolina’s 43 district court districts — in a series of emergency directives issued around Thanksgiving.
Soon thereafter, Beasley, a Democrat, conceded the chief justice race to Newby, a Republican, by just 401 votes out of nearly 5.4 million ballots cast in the November election. (News reports said this week Beasley is mulling a run for the seat Sen. Richard Burr will vacate in 2022.)
In one of his first major decisions as chief justice, Newby rescinded many of his predecessor’s orders. In doing so, he cited what he interpreted as a violation of the state’s constitution which states that “the courts shall be open, and that justice shall be administered without favor, denial or delay.” That would apply to Chatham’s district and superior courts, and the district civil court, all of which convene in Pittsboro’s Justice Center.
“That is the constitutional requirement that the courts shall be open,” Newby said at the N.C. State Supreme Court ceremonial investitures for all newly-elected members. “Open courts available for all the citizens is not a luxury, it is a mandate.”
But Newby did not require N.C. courts to resume jury trials. Instead, be delegated responsibility to the superior court judge in each district to make that decision. For Chatham, that means Baddour.
In concert with the Judicial District Executive Council — a group that “was formed over 10 years ago to work together to address the needs of the district,” he said — Baddour elected to further postpone resumption of jury trials. The JDEC’s members include Baddour, Chief District Court Judge Samantha Cabe, Chatham and Orange counties’ District Attorney Jim Woodall, Interim Public Defender Woodrena Baker-Harrell, Chatham County Clerk of Court Dana Hackney and Orange County Clerk of Court Mark Kleinschmidt.
“Luckily for Chatham and Orange, our JDEC is a great team, works well together, and is on the same page about resumption of jury trials,” Baddour said. “... We will also keep an eye on the age of cases and the need for justice for those charged with crimes, victims and the community.”
Jury trials are scheduled to resume on March 29 for the Civil Superior Court and on April 19 for Criminal Superior Court.
“We will, of course, continue to monitor the pandemic, vaccine distribution, and infection rates,” Baddour said, “and may modify that schedule if it becomes necessary.”
Tight restrictions on court activity are designed to stifle coronavirus spread, but they complicate legal proceedings, especially in criminal cases where defendants have been jailed awaiting their trials.
“It is really tough when you’ve got some of those cases that just can’t be resolved without a jury trial,” Chatham’s Rep. Robert Reives II (D - Dist. 54), who is also a partner at the law offices of Wilson, Reives & Silverman in Sanford, previously told the News + Record. “Having those clients sitting (in jail) really what is an extra year, at least, past where they should have been, that’s tough.”
To minimize long jail stays, however, Baddour and his staff have adjusted their practices.
“In Chatham, we have moved away from pre-trial detention for low level offenses, and are taking a much closer look at everyone who is in custody before trial,” he said. “We have definitely trended away from pre-trial detention for all but the most serious situations.”
Even before the pandemic began, Baddour was interested in modifying detention procedures, but the last year has accelerated his plans.
“We are learning a lot and making changes to the way we do business,” he said, “and I expect many of those changes to be permanent.”
Reporter D. Lars Dolder can be reached at dldolder@chathamnr.com and on Twitter @dldolder.