Boone County Circuit Court Provides Updates on Pandemic Response

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04-03-20
News,

On March 19, 2020, Mary Epping, Court Administrator for the 13th Judicial Circuit provided the following update on the Boone County Circuit Court’s response to COVID-19:

During this pandemic we are continuing to work with our agency partners to find creative solutions to make sure we balance the health of everyone, while also making sure we are prioritizing cases that have to be processed.

Update 1:

In a continued effort to consolidate dockets and interactions, the court will temporarily consolidate its associate circuit dockets for in custody criminal cases to the following schedule:

Plan for associates through April 17 to consolidate dockets:

  • Monday: A circuit judge will hear all arraignments
  • Tuesday: Judge Morrell – arraignments and all her in-custody criminal cases at 1:30 (she will have no other criminal cases the rest of the week)
  • Wednesday: Judge Gonzalez  (same as above)
  • Thursday: Judge Shaw (same as above)
  • Friday: Judge Jacobs will hear arraignments at 1:30

Circuit judges’ schedules will not change at this time.

Update 2:

The jail and Court have agreed to provide a mechanism for attorneys to confidentially video conference with their clients who are in custody. Attorneys will call court administration at 886-4060 to see if the video conference room is available. The attorney will schedule their time. The attorney will come to the courthouse and use a video conferencing until that will be in the 1East Courtroom. The attorneys will call the jail at 875-1111, x5194 no more than 15 minutes before their scheduled time to ask their client to meet with them on video. We ask that attorneys only schedule for that day, we will not block time more than 1 day in advance.

Based on the current court and jail needs, it is anticipated the following will be the available time periods for both the court and the jail:

Monday – Friday

8:30 – 11:00 a.m.

3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

As a reminder, this is temporary and only available during the pandemic. Also, if the Court needs the video for any reason, the attorney and client’s video may be cancelled even if it was pre-arranged. If needed, times during the above windows may be blocked out by the Court.