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Visiting courthouse? New procedures because of COVID-19 in place

3 min read
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Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter

Benches in the courthouse have been taped so people don’t sit too close to each other.

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Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter

The West Cherry Avenue entrance to the Washington County Courthouse has been set up to direct visitors to the station equipped with no-contact thermometers.

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Katerina Findley and Brent Williams are usually employed by the juvenile probation office, but their LEADER program was temporarily suspended when schools closed.

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Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter

Katerina Findley and Brent Williams were on duty as screeners Tuesday inquiring about the health of those entering the Washington County Courthouse.

Brent Williams aimed the no-contact thermometer at the visitor’s forehead.

“Have you been out of the country in the past two weeks? Have you been around anyone who has been confirmed positive for COVID-19?” he asked, posing a final question about the state of the visitor’s health or possible symptoms.

Registering a body temperature under 100 degrees Fahrenheit, answering “no” to the travel or COVID questions and being symptom-free on Tuesday granted a person entrance to the Washington County Courthouse and an orange dot sticker to denote as having passed the test.

The screeners began keeping count June 1, and about 400 visitors and 150 employees enter the courthouse daily.

A similar temperature screening is being used at the offices of magisterial district judges.

Williams and his co-worker, Katerina Findley, normally work in the juvenile probation office’s Leadership Enhanced Attitude Development Educational Rehabilitation. Youth found to be delinquent are ordered by the court to participate in this school-based program.

The LEADER program has not been meeting while classrooms were closed, but the program is likely to restart July 1.

At the courthouse, those with masks who were deemed healthy – whether visitor or employee – could then go through security screening that’s been in place for years: walking through a metal detector and having a handbag or briefcase X-rayed.

Patrick Grimm, Washington County court administrator who had an orange dot on his shirt front, said three people have been stopped from entering the courthouse since the checks began.

One had tested positive for COVID-19, another had been tested but hadn’t yet received results, and a third had been in contact with an immediate family member who had tested positive.

Although the three were kept outside, “We made arrangements to help them complete their business,” Grimm said.

As an experiment in social distancing, a mock trial was staged at the courthouse in advance of the June trial term, and three courtrooms were used – two for jurors and a third for the parties, whether they be litigants, plaintiffs or defendants, prosecutors or defense attorneys, plus the judge, who would simulcast to the jurors in the other courtrooms.

“We’re following Department of Health and (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines as much as we can,” Grimm said.

Summonses were sent, but no jurors were needed this week for possible trials because one defendant entered a guilty plea and a civil case was settled. Had the trials taken place, some jurors would have been told to report on Monday for selection, and a second round would have been scheduled for Tuesday to keep the crowds lighter.

The rate for jurors willing to report was higher than usual, Grimm said, although a few people requested excuses because of health-related issues or underlying conditions that put them at risk of contracting the contagious COVID-19.

In other courthouse-related matters, 258 windows in the 120-year-old building have been replaced during the partial shutdown that began in mid-March, and the bulk of the portico project at the South Main Street entrance has been replaced, but those doors remain closed due to the checks for the novel coronavirus.

“It will open eventually,” Grimm said. “I don’t know how long we’re going to continue to do this. Everything with COVID-19 is very fluid and an ever-changing environment.”

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