By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
When all Clarion County buildings were ordered to be closed to the public in March, the courts were forced to overhaul the way justice is served.
Plea and sentence court is usually a hectic day. All of the defendants, their attorneys, deputies and the court staff are all in the courtroom at the same time.
With social distancing in effect, that had to change.
“We are staggering the cases,” said Clarion County Judge of Common Pleas Judge Sara Seidle-Patton. “We just finalized our court list for the April 22 plea and sentencing court. I don’t think we have more than four individuals who will be present at any given time.”
In her order curtailing attendance in court, the judge said, “For all court proceedings, only parties, witnesses and attorneys are permitted to be present in the courtroom or hearing room. All other individuals will be asked not to enter the courthouse. Whenever possible, court proceedings will be conducted via advanced communication technologies such as video and telephone.”
The biggest change has been the introduction of technology in the courtroom. Prior to the COVID-19 emergency, no electronic devices were permitted in the courtroom.
“We had behavioral court today (April 9) via phone,” said Seidle-Patton. “Treatment court was held via ZOOM conference call last week. Our probation department is still operating at full capacity — they are making phone calls instead of seeing them face-to-face.”
Seidle-Patton said county-operated programs are still operational.
“We are keeping them going,” said Seidle-Patton. “Some of them have had to be modified using conference calls rather than in person sessions. There are some outside agencies that are not providing services at this time. For a week or two, CenClear was closed so they were not participating in that outpatient counseling.”
The judge said there have been some problems getting drug and alcohol assessments that are a part of our pre-sentence investigation.
Court proceedings that can be continued to a later date are being continued on a case-by-case basis. Court proceedings that occur via a list of cases, such as criminal plea and sentence court, are being rescheduled in increments to reduce the number of individuals present in the courtroom at one time.
“It is definitely creating a backlog in the court system,” said Seidle-Patton. “We are going to have some very busy days ahead of us.”