Jury trials suspended in Manatee, neighboring counties as COVID positivity rates climb
Jury trials are being suspended in Manatee, Sarasota and Desoto counties as the latest COVID-19 surge continues and the community’s positivity rates continue to climb.
Masks, social distancing and all other remaining COVID-19 protocols had been eliminated in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in June, only to have to be re-implemented earlier this month. At the time, the level of community transmission of COVID-19 in all three counties was already rated high by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In an administrative ordered signed Wednesday, Chief Judge Charles Roberts suspended all jury trials in the circuit. The order will go into effect beginning Monday, allowing for any trial in which the jury is selected before Monday to proceed as long as both sides agree.
“Due to the marked escalation in COVID-19 cases in all three counties within the circuit, it has become necessary once again to temporarily suspend jury trials so that the number of people in each courthouse will be reduced, and to protect jurors from possible exposure to COVID-19,” Roberts said in his latest order.
“Compelling so many people from the community to report for jury duty and then placing them together in jury assembly rooms or courtrooms for extended periods of time creates too great a risk of COVID-19 exposure and cannot continue under current pandemic conditions.”
Roberts cited data from last Friday’s weekly COVID-19 report from the Florida Department of Health, which at the time reported positivity rates of 19.4% in Manatee County, 18.6% in Sarasota County and 24.2% in DeSoto County.
On Thursday, however, Florida reported 21,765 more COVID-19 cases and 901 deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data. It marked the largest single-day increase of the state’s death total since the start of the pandemic.
A minimum of two weeks public notice will be given before jury trial are resumed, according to Roberts’ order. That decision will be made once the “chief judge determines that the number of COVID-19 cases has sufficiently declined, and that adequate health and safety protocols are in place such that jury trials can safely resume in each county in the 12th Judicial Circuit.”
The Florida Supreme Court is currently allowing decisions to be made by chief judges on the circuit court level.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 3:24 PM.
