LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Superior Court said it has received another emergency order allowing for further delay of trials through late February due to COVID-19.
In response to the local COVID-19 case rate, court officials said they submitted a request for emergency relief under Government Code section 68115(a)(10), which addresses judicial emergencies.
On Tuesday, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye authorized the Lake County Superior Court to extend statutory deadlines in criminal trials under Penal Code
section 1382, by no more than 30 days.
Jury trials had been set to start again at the end of January. However, as a result of the Tuesday order, no jury trial will take place before Feb. 23, court officials said.
County residents who have received a jury summons for any date prior to Feb. 23 are not required to appear, the court reported.
This is the sixth emergency order the state has approved for the Lake County Superior Court to allow for the adjustment of court operations during the pandemic, as Lake County News has reported.
Trials had been stopped from March through late summer, when trials resumed.
However, at the start of December, after Lake County moved into the purple, or highest tier, on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the court sought an emergency order putting off trials through the end of that month and moved much of the rest of its hearings online.
At the end of December, the court received another order approving putting off trials until the end of January, with Tuesday’s order bringing the closures up to nearly three months in length.
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Lake County Superior Court receives emergency order to push back trials to late February
- Elizabeth Larson
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