Ballrooms Grow to be Courtrooms to Get Jury Trials Shifting

May 21, 2021

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Ballrooms Grow to be Courtrooms to Get Jury Trials Shifting

Randolph, Mass. – When this Boston suburb decided that after a year-long pandemic hiatus, it was finally time to hold trials of 12 people again, court officials knew the cramped spaces of their nearly 200-year-old courthouse were not going to work.

Instead, they built a makeshift courthouse at Lombardo’s Meetings & Occasions, known locally for hosting weddings and graduation parties, with teenagers posing in front of the sparkling three-story chandelier.

“When they announced it, I gasped loudly,” said Denise Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, who attended prom there in 1976. “If someone shows up in a tuxedo with a frilled shirt, I’ll just lose it,” she said.

Huge parts of American life are reopening and legal proceedings are returning, but they look far from normal. Gone are the jury sitting shoulder to shoulder in a packed jury while the lawyers pace a few meters in front of them and argue about their case. Pandemic courts are leaving small, poorly ventilated courtrooms empty and taking over cinemas, exhibition grounds, stadiums, legionary halls, hotel ballrooms, and high school cafeterias.

Massachusetts Trial Court officials at the entrance to the Provisional Norfolk County Court near Lombardo.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to retrial with 12 people in early May as the system is roughly 3,700 cases backlogged. Cases piled up during the pandemic after all lawsuits in Massachusetts were suspended until earlier this year. If a plaintiff filed a case today, Ms. Murphy said she probably wouldn’t see a jury for four to five years; Before the pandemic, the waiting period was one to three years.

Lombardo’s hosted its first trial on April 7th, a grand jury selection that selects 23 judges from dozens of potential judges. The lobby is now a security checkpoint with metal detectors. The hallway is lined with easels on which the name of the bride and groom was once written, but now visitors are led into the “Jury Pool” or “Courtroom 1” room.

Two of Lombardo’s ballrooms – the Regency and the Embassy – have been converted into courtrooms. Velvet ropes mark the jury boxes. The bars lined with alcohol bottles are discreetly hidden behind gray curtains. The judges’ chambers are located in the wedding suites with bejeweled tissue boxes and vases with artificial flowers.

The main challenge was to find a safe place for prisoners before or after the trial. The answer turned out to be Vincent’s Nightclub in Lombardo’s basement, where three temporary prison cells were set up on the dance floor under a circle of spotlights and a disco ball.

Plexiglass barriers and hand sanitizer in a temporary courtroom.

David Lombardo, the fourth-generation executive and member of the family business, said the facility laid off nearly 150 employees at the start of the pandemic, and he immediately agreed when a court official living nearby brought up the idea. The Massachusetts state court system is paying nearly $ 370,000 to rent the venue for four months.

Mr Lombardo contemplated someone having their prom and wedding and being sentenced to life imprisonment in the same ballroom.

“We are a place for milestone events, even if they are not always positive,” he said. He starts hosting weddings and parties on the weekends.

Lombardo’s is rented from the Massachusetts state court system.

Quincy District Court Chief Justice Mark Coven has conducted two trials against six people in Lombardy. Judge Coven said court officials worked hard to turn the room into a courtroom, including swapping the white tablecloths on attorneys’ tables with black ones so it looked less like they were having dinner.

Judge Coven said he began his trial by asking the jury if they had been to Lombardy and a number of people raised their hands. He told them to forget these memories and make new ones. “After the first 5 minutes … people forget where they are and just focus on their work,” he said.

The morning before his first trial began, he took the liberty of engaging in a Lombard tradition, taking a picture of himself in his judge’s robe in front of the large chandelier and writing it to his friends.

According to court officials, getting the judicial process going again is important, even if it means thinking outside of the jury. There have been dramatically fewer legal proceedings than normal in various jurisdictions over the past year. Some states experimented with certain procedures carried out over the phone or through Zoom and convened large virtual juries. Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to a speedy trial and pressure on the courts to find a way to reopen.

Massachusetts resumed trials with six people in a limited number of courthouses across the state earlier this year because the logistics are less complex. However, 12-person trials are the norm for serious and more complicated civil trials.

Litigation is one of the most challenging pandemic activities. Unlike the grocery store, jurors and witnesses can be legally compelled to appear, adding an extra burden to the courts to protect them. The jury’s selection often brings hundreds of people together in one room.

Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven poses in front of the Lombard chandelier on the morning of his first trial.

Photo:

Quincy District Court

Across the country, court participants are seated at least three feet apart, and everyone generally wears masks except sometimes when speaking. The courts have created a maze of plexiglass barriers, introduced air purifiers and replaced water fountains with hand disinfection stations.

In Springfield, Massachusetts, a court is being held in a mall that closed at the start of the pandemic. Hampden County’s clerk Laura Gentile said the makeshift courtrooms were equipped with enough Plexiglas to host a “junior league.” [hockey] Game.”

The jurors sit on the plush seats of the theater, and judges and lawyers stand at tables in front of the screen. “They took away the popcorn machine, which makes everyone a little angry,” she said.

It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for courts to go on a field trip. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, a court was held outside in Portsmouth Square in San Francisco to prevent the spread of disease.

Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts, said stadiums have historically been used for complex cases involving hundreds of lawyers, witnesses and other attendees.

A small function room has been converted into a jury pool room.

In Texas, litigants can request a lawsuit for anything from expediting tickets to divorce cases. During normal times, the Texas state courts hold nearly 200 trials a week.

John Tidwell, a judge at the 202nd District Court in Bowie County, Texas, personally held one of the first post-pandemic trials in a local high school auditorium last summer. The judge and attorneys sat on the stage while the jury watched from the front rows.

“It looked like a high school production of To Kill a Mockingbird,” he said. The soundproofed band hall turned out to be the ideal place for the jury to consult.

Some jurisdictions have attempted a small number of trials against virtual jurors. However, the judges say that Zoom trials present challenges, including ensuring that all jurors have reliable internet access and that the defendants’ constitutional right to face witnesses who testify against them is met.

In Spokane, Washington, the local state court has been conducting trials at the county fairgrounds since February. The fair had left town, but the site was furnished with cavernous exhibition halls perfect for a socially distant legal process.

“We had a lot of interesting conversations: ‘Oh, you are at the exhibition center? Were you able to get a corn dog at lunch? “Said Harold Clarke III. Spokane County Supreme Court Justice.