Tulsa County public defenders stop jail visits to mitigate risk of COVID-19; courthouse implements changes

The Oklahoma Supreme Court and Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emergency order on Monday instructing district courts to cancel jury settings for the next 30 days and telling judges to reschedule most nonjury proceedings due to the “impending threat” of COVID-19.

“All district courts in Oklahoma shall immediately cancel all jury terms for the next 30 days and release jurors from service,” with civil, criminal and juvenile jury trials moved to the next available jury dockets, the order says.

The order was issued after Tulsa County Presiding District Judge William LaFortune had approved a local suspension of most civil, family and probate dockets for this week and next. LaFortune on Monday also had suspended the county’s forcible entry and detainer — or eviction — dockets.

The state Supreme Court’s notice calls for a rescheduling of nonjury trials, hearings and pretrial settings.

“Emergency matters, arraignments, bond hearings and required proceedings of any kind shall be handled on a case-by-case basis by the assigned judge,” Chief Justice Norma Gurich wrote. “Judges shall use remote participation to the extent possible by use of telephone conferencing, video conferencing pursuant to (district court rules) or other means.”

At the same time, people with COVID-19 and those who have been exposed to them, as well as people with symptoms of the illness, are barred from courthouse facilities.

Tulsa County Chief Public Defender Corbin Brewster said his staff was no longer conducting in-person visits with clients detained at the Tulsa County jail as of Monday to mitigate the risk of exposing attorneys and detainees to illness.

“If there is a spread of the virus within my office, we would have to go to a skeleton crew,” Brewster told the Tulsa World, saying it could result in a “snowball effect” of new cases sitting unassigned to attorneys.

“We’ve asked the courts to accommodate us to conference at the courthouse, and we’ve asked the (Tulsa County) Sheriff’s Office to provide secure, confidential opportunities to communicate by phone and by video with our clients in the jail.”

However, he expressed concerns about continued pretrial detention without resolution, particularly for low-level offenses, saying his office has identified nearly 130 people currently in the Tulsa County jail for misdemeanors.

When asked about those cases, District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said his office was reviewing them “to see if we can reduce that number through a negotiated resolution with credit for time served.”

“We’re looking at the population by age, as well, particularly anyone in the jail that’s over 50 years old that’s in on low-level offenses,” Brewster said of the situation. “We’re preparing to file a number of bond reduction motions in those cases for personal recognizance release.”

Statistics Brewster provided to the World show less than a 4% decrease in bookings in the first 15 days of March, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, from the same time in 2019 — 804 receptions this year compared to 835 last year. The state Health Department reported the first positive test for COVID-19, which was in Tulsa County, on March 6.

In a meeting with the Tulsa County Board of Commissioners on Monday, Kunzweiler said there would be a change in how his office would handle continuing litigation for those under District Attorney’s Office supervision.

“For those people who are on probation for, I’d guess you’d call it nonviolent type of crimes, … we’re not going to be issuing (probation violation) warrants for the next 30 days,” Kunzweiler told reporters after the meeting.

He said his staff can still file applications to accelerate deferred sentences to convictions or revoke suspended sentences to preserve the right to argue about alleged violations.

However, he said, “I want to be focused on those people who are real public safety threats,” referring to those accused of violent crimes such as robbery, rape and murder.

Asked about possible changes to arrest policies, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Casey Roebuck said deputies are required to make arrests if state law indicates that a crime warrants it. She said the Sheriff’s Office cannot “arbitrarily” decide whom to release from custody without some direction from the court system.

Brewster said his office’s in-custody clients are less likely to be in perfect health due at least partly to their inability to receive consistent health care, meaning, “We have a responsibility to rethink incarcerating people under those circumstances.”

But Roebuck told the World, “As of today we don’t have any reason to believe we have had an exposure take place at (the jail), so that’s the good news.”

Kunzweiler said Tulsa County court rules allow for video teleconferencing for witnesses who, for example, are under quarantine at their homes. He called on the county commissioners to provide funds to expand the court’s capability to have witnesses appear by virtual methods if necessary to expedite litigation in those cases.

“We have the counterbalance of people who are sitting in a jail cell. We can’t delay their justice. They have a right to be able to confront the evidence against them,” Kunzweiler said.

World reporter Kevin Canfield contributed to this story.

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