While many businesses and services have had to close their doors due to COVID-19, the Manitowoc County Courthouse is not one of those places.
We spoke with District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre, who said they are a vital service for many reasons. “We still have people committing crimes, we still have victims who need services, it’s a challenge, I will say that,” LaBre explained. “We are doing the best we can. I will say my staff has been very good at being creative and figuring out ways to still help victims, and make sure cases get processed.”
While many may think that having people in court would be a challenge, LaBre said that they have turned to technology to fix the issue. “We are trying to process cases as much as we can through Zoom, which, believe it or not, the Judges, the defense bar, and the DA’s office are getting pretty good at it,” LaBre said. “The difficult hurdle we are having trouble with is jury trials.”
The Manitowoc County District Attorney elaborated, saying “When you have a jury trial, you have to bring in a lot of citizens throughout the community into the courthouse, and you have to go to the selection processes to get down to the 12 jurors, so you have to bring in way more than 12 to pick that jury. Then you have to find a place where they can deliberate in a safe manner. Then you have witnesses…it’s quite a challenge.”
That being said, the judges and courthouse staff are working on ways to make those trials possible. Zoom, a video conferencing program that is used online, has also made it easier to hold court hearings with people who are in jails besides Manitowoc County’s. LaBre said it alleviated the need to send a pair of Deputies to that jail, transport the inmate, hold the hearing, and then bring them back.
