COLUMBUS, Ind. — Jury trials are set to resume in Bartholomew County courts, after they were suspended for about three months due to the pandemic.
While Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush did not suspend in-court trials statewide until mid-December, most judges in Columbus have conducted only essential court matters since the Bartholomew County Courthouse was closed to the general public last spring.
Local judges — Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin, Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton and Bartholomew Superior Court 2 Judge Jon Rohde — all have a significant number of cases waiting to be tried by jury.
“While my court used to set 15 to 20 cases on a jury trial day, it’s now 33 to 40, so it has doubled,” Benjamin said.
It’s difficult to put meaning in those numbers because the vast majority of those cases will end with pleas, Benjamin said. However, when there are more than three dozen cases stacked up at a time, it increases the probability of lengthy jury trials that create further delays, she said.
The docket in Superior Court 1 will also remain jam-packed for several months. Worton believes he will be presiding over at least one trial every week through June – including a five-day civil jury trial scheduled for the middle of this month.
For the complete story, see Friday’s Republic.
