Doña Ana County jury trial backlog due to COVID-19 could take years to overcome
Bethany Brunelle-Raja
LAS CRUCES - During the pandemic, Third Judicial District Court has remained open. Most criminal jury trials, however, have been suspended for almost an entire year to ensure the safety of the public and court employees against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Chief Judge Manuel Arrietta said there are currently about 600 criminal trials ready to go, and they're waiting on the loosening of restrictions in order to complete those quickly. On the civil side, he said the court has around 400 trials currently backlogged.
Those are cases that are ready to stand trial.
Besides the current backlog of cases that are ready to go to trial, Arrieta said there are about 1,000 cases backlogged at the Third Judicial District Attorney's Office, waiting to be filed in court for the first time.
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Up to two years to complete
Prior to COVID-19, grand juries would convene to formally charge a suspect and issue an indictment. But due to virus mitigation, grand juries were halted, and the courts transitioned to a preliminary hearing process.
A preliminary hearing is a "trial before the trial," in which a judge determines whether there's enough evidence in a case to try a suspect who has been charged with a crime.
"That takes witnesses; that takes time; that takes a hearing and so it's a much slower process," Arrieta told the Sun-News. "Sometimes witnesses don't show up, so that preliminary hearing is dismissed or continued — and so all of these charges are piling up. The DA has about 1,000 of those cases."
Once COVID-19 is over, Arrieta said those 1,000 charges will be filed — a backlog that is separate and above the jury trials that are currently backed up.
"Quite frankly, it's going to be a backlog that's going to overwhelm us, and it will probably take anywhere from one year to two years to try to get out of. When I say out of, it means going back to normal. The normal for us is we usually have about 80 criminal cases per judge coming up each month to try," he said.
Of those typical 80 cases, two or three are ready to go to trial, Arrieta said.
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In January, Third Judicial District Attorney Gerald Byers said he met with Arrieta to discuss the caseload backlog and how to manage it.
One thing the court did to help, he said, was to add a third judge to handle criminal cases. Another thing that will help to significantly expedite the process is reinstating the grand jury process.
"I remain confident that, as the court allocates scarce resources and implements authorized procedures, our office can quickly address the case backlog created by COVID-19 restrictions," Byers said.
COVID trials vs. non-COVID trials
Trials started again on Feb. 1, and since then, the court has also had difficulty getting potential jurors to report for duty because they're concerned for their health and the health of their families. They also have concerns with their employers.
Arrieta said there's a big difference between having a trial during the COVID-19 pandemic those conducted before COVID-19. For trials pre-pandemic, Arrieta said they'd typically call in around 60 people to be questioned for one jury. Once the jury was selected, they'd go straight into the trial.
With COVID-19 though, things have slowed the process down drastically.
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"You have to make sure everybody's six feet apart, they have to wear masks and you have to make sure no one is touching the areas that are going to be shared — including exhibits," he said.
Anyone entering the courthouse is also screened for COVID-19 symptoms, asked if they've traveled out of the state or country, and whether they've been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for the virus.
"So you can imagine, this tends to slow down our ability to conduct a trial. What used to be a one-day trial might now be a two-day trial. What used to be a five-day trial might now be a seven-day trial," he said.
Other proceedings continued
Even though most criminal jury trials have been on hiatus, Arrieta said the court has stayed open. Though law enforcement officers can arrest and detain suspects, without court orders, they can't be processed and decisions related to their charges can't be made.
"We have been unable to do very many criminal trials; it has a lot to do with that. During COVID, you can't bring in 14 jurors and have all of the court personnel, the attorneys, so on and so forth, in the courtroom. Even in our largest courtroom, that's been a real struggle," he said.
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On the criminal side, he said they've issued orders on domestic violence matters, temporary orders of protection, and have handled neglect and mental commitment cases. On the civil side, they've continued processing emergency injunctions and other pressing matters.
Specialty courts — such as drug courts — also haven't been able to meet this past year.
Public defender's office responds
Attorney Kris Knutson, who heads up the Law Office of the Public Defender, said that he has difficulty understanding why there's such a backlog.
"What it means for our office is that, sooner or later, we'll be trying a lot of jury trials. And that'll also depend on how reasonable district attorneys are going to be with plea negotiations," he said.
If attorneys can resolve cases with plea agreements, Knutson said that should help with the backlog issue.
"The more we can cooperate with each other and negotiate — because frankly, most criminal cases should be resolved with plea negotiations," he said.
Despite the backlog caused by suspending trials, Knutson said it was the right thing to do.
"This was a pandemic, and it was a very contagious virus going on. In my opinion, we still shouldn't have jury trials until we get a better hold on this," he said. "I don't know — we would be debating having schools open and stuff, and then have people sitting in a jury room."
The priority should be in cases in which people's rights are being violated because they're sitting in jail, he said, but he doesn't see a need for any other trials right away.
"I understand victims do want some closure. But during a pandemic, I think their closure has to be delayed a little bit," he said.
Knutson said he doesn't feel safe being in a courtroom with jurors.
Bethany Freudenthal can be reached at bfreudenthal@lcsun-news.com, 575-541-5449 or @bethanyfreuden1 on Twitter.
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