The way our justice system usually works, it relies on people talking to other people, in person, sometimes under oath.
For most of a year now, though, itโs been inadvisable at best, dangerous at worst, to get together and hash out our conflicts the normal way.
The police, the jail, the constables, the courts, the attorneys โ theyโve all adapted on the fly, sometimes creatively and productively. They use Microsoft Teams, for example, for many court hearings. But the system isnโt built for this and is starting to bend under pressure.
The details are as nitty-gritty as this: Pima Countyโs 10 constables, preparing for a possible January onslaught of evictions they have to carry out, say they donโt have enough personal protective equipment. They often end up inside peopleโs homes, dealing with them face to face, with just a cloth face covering and maybe gloves.
One constable just got back to work after 18 days out with COVID-19.
And the problems are as abstract as a growing backlog of criminal cases in Pima County Superior Court. A dozen trials were scheduled to begin in January, but on Friday, presiding judge Kyle Bryson suspended them again, this time till Jan. 31.
โWe are back to where we were in the summertime when we had that other spike,โ Bryson said Friday. โWeโve reduced our presence in the building to half staff.โ
With no threat of an impending trial or prison, defendants are often declining to take plea bargains, which is the way 96% of criminal cases are resolved. And those who want to go trial must simply wait.
At the federal level, Tucsonโs immigration court was closed from April to September, delaying the processing of hundreds of immigration cases. The gears of this Justice Department administrative court started grinding again, but the court closed unexpectedly Friday.
โOut of an abundance of caution related to COVID-19, the Tucson Immigration Court is closed today, Dec. 18, for cleaning, consistent with CDC guidelines,โ the court announced via Twitter. โAny known close contacts have been notified.โ
As COVID-19 surges again, the ripples move further and further out. The Pima County jail, which has been a relative standout in terms of handling COVID-19, has now suffered what Sheriff Mark Napier termed a โminor outbreak.โ
One result, said immigration and criminal- defense attorney Margo Cowan, is that she couldnโt see a client she tried to videoconference with Thursday night. The same man couldnโt appear for a video hearing he was to have Friday in Pima County Superior Court.
โThe jail has really been diligent,โ Cowan said. โThis is the first time thereโs been an outbreak where you canโt see clients.โ
When clients and attorneys canโt meet, that bogs down the rest of the criminal-justice process.
But thereโs a whole other dynamic preventing cases from being resolved, said chief deputy Pima County Attorney Amelia Cramer. Defendants who are out of custody have leverage because no trials are happening.
โDefense counsel or defendants are declining plea offers that previously they would have been taking,โ she said. โIf theyโre out of custody, they donโt want to go into custody. If theyโre in custody, theyโd rather be in our jail where itโs saferโ than prison.
โOur caseloads have gone from 45 to 50 per prosecutor up to 90, because theyโre just not moving.โ
Among the stagnant cases is that of King Yates, accused of killing Branden Roth in the Pima County jail in April 2017. Yates, who is representing himself in the case, is already spending life in prison for murdering his wife, Cassandra Yates, in 2016. He was in jail awaiting trial for that murder when he was accused of killing Roth, his cellmate.
Now that hearings are taking place by video link, Yates is refusing to participate, said Rothโs mother, Carrie Walker. Nothing has happened in the case since 2018, she said.
โWe canโt move on from anything because weโre stuck in time, because they wonโt force him to sit in front of the video monitor,โ she said. โHe has 99 years to drag this out.โ
On the other hand, criminal-defense attorney Jeff Rogers said, a defendant who is in custody and wants the speedy trial that Arizonaโs Constitution guarantees is simply out of luck.
โTheyโve issued a blanket waiver of that,โ he said. โYouโve got clients who are pretty impatient.โ
In the immigration world, people often wait years to get their status adjusted. On Friday morning, attorney Trevor Hill met at the federal building downtown with a client who was expecting to win her legal permanent residence that day.
When Hill arrived, she was in the lobby and told him the hearing had been canceled.
โIn the grand scheme itโs the responsible choice,โ Hill said of the courtโs closure. โBut now we donโt know when weโre going to come back and get it done.โ
The pandemic has wreaked havoc in a completely different part of the justice system โ the constableโs office.
Presiding Constable Kristen Randall has been wrangling with Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, asking for training from medical professionals and more personal protective equipment to protect constables and the public, especially when they perform evictions.
The threat isnโt just theoretical: Constable Bennett Bernal was infected and became sick the day after Thanksgiving, he said.
โMy understanding is I went into a home where the mother had tested positive for COVID,โ Bernal said Friday. โTo be honest, Iโm surprised a lot of us havenโt gotten it.โ
About half the time constables knock and the residents are home, they simply donโt answer the door, his colleague Randall said. Then the constables must go into peopleโs homes to serve the eviction papers. Once in recent weeks, a constable found the resident sick in bed.
โWhen you consider the viral load of someone whoโs in their room and theyโre sick, itโs a lot higher than when you pass somebody in the supermarket,โ she said.
The constables donโt cherish the thought of evicting people, but it is a big part of their job, along with serving protection orders and other court papers. A surge of evictions is likely in January when federal protections for renters run out, and landlords seek redress for rent that has gone unpaid for months.
โI want a plan, then I want the proper PPE for that,โ Randall said.
She has also sought guidance on the possibility of serving evictions without going into homes, something that Huckelberry has asked Bryson to consider.
Itโs another adaptation of the system, which has proven able to adapt, but with increasingly serious consequences as the pandemic explodes again.
