Judge James W. Lawler presides over a Lewis County Superior Court hearing in July.
Many cases that have entered the Lewis County Courts and been put on standby because of the COVID-19 pandemic will have to be reckoned with soon as jury trials are set to begin at the beginning of August.
“We have approximately 400 District Court cases and I want to say 100 to 200 Superior Court cases that all have an expiration date at the end of November if they are out of custody, and the end of October if they are in custody,” said Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.
To handle the backlog, Meyer is considering bringing civil deputies over to the criminal side to help alleviate the pressure that has been building in his office for several months.
The main concern, according to Meyer, is that with the commencement of jury trials just on the horizon (Aug. 3), and many of those cases having expiration dates due to speedy-trial requirements looming in the months that follow, there won’t be enough personnel to give each of the backlogged cases the attention they require.
Additionally, Meyer reported that superior court filings are up 10 percent and juvenile court filings are up 20 percent from this time last year.
“So we haven’t seen a dip in crime, we’re actually seeing an increase in filings so that just adds to it.”
The way Meyer see’s it, as long as he has more prosecutors ready than the Lewis County Courts have judges — who currently are Joely O’Rourke, James Lawler and Andrew Toynbee in Superior Court and R.W. Buzzard and Wade Samuelson in District Court — his office is going to be okay.
However, as Lawler pointed out to The Chronicle, because of COVID-19-related restrictions, there is only one superior courtroom that is big enough to have a socially distanced jury trial.
“It’s certainly a concern because we’ve never had this many cases backed up and obviously we are in very unusual times,” Lawler said.
Though Lawler was seemingly optimistic that the backlog of cases would not overwhelm the Law and Justice Center because many cases never reach a jury trial and are settled through a plea agreement, or go to a non-jury trial — a bench trial — in which there aren’t as many restrictions because of the lack of a jury.
Meyer added that this, in part, is why he could potentially need more criminal deputies
“You can have a mix of jury and non-jury trials at the same time,” Meyer said.
Furthermore, Meyer argued from a strategic perspective, it could be beneficial to bring on more deputies.
“If I’m a defense attorney and I see you have 15 cases but you only have the manpower to go (to trial for) three, well that means 12 of them are going to have to be dealt with out of trial,” Meyer said. “So if I’m a defense attorney I’m going to look at the possibility of just saying, ‘yeah, we want to go to trial. What are you going to do?’ So we have to always be ready for the worst-case scenario.”
Another aspect that could bog down jury trials is the jury selection process, which is now taking place at a 6,000 square-foot building at the Southwest Fairgrounds to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions, Meyer said.
Meyer believes having the jury selection offsite from the Law and Justice Center could add about half a day’s worth of time to each case, which may not seem like a lot, but when you account for the number of cases that could go to trial and the limited time frame they’re working under, it adds up.
The process of moving to the fairgrounds was a hassle in and of itself. Meyer explained that court must take place in the county seat, which is Chehalis for Lewis County. However, the building selected for jury selection is approximately 500 feet outside of the Chehalis city limits and in Centralia.
“We had to petition the Supreme Court and receive permission from the board of county commissioners to have court in Centralia,” Meyer said. “Earlier this week, we received permission from the Supreme Court and the board had already approved it.”
County Clerk Scott Tinney, who is in charge of issuing the jury summonses, said his office has to issue about double the amount of summonses they normally would because with COVID-19 restrictions, it isn’t particularly hard to opt out due to a health reason.
“If they check that box, they’re automatically excused, which is different than what normally happens,” Tinney said. “Generally if someone has a health issue and are asking to be excused we require an excuse or explanation from their medical provider.”
According to Tinney, roughly two thirds of the people who have received summons already have chosen to opt out. But because Tinney’s office anticipated this, he said, doubling the amount of summons issued has helped secure enough candidates.
Despite the Law and Justice Center heading into uncharted territory, Lawler optimistically said, “In my experience, I’ve been doing this for over 12 years now, it always seems to work out. The cases seem to resolve.”
