All Tulsa County Jury Trials Postponed Due To Water Damage At Courthouse

All civil and criminal jury trials have been canceled after water damage to the jury assembly room last week.

Monday, September 8th 2014, 12:59 pm

By: News On 6

All Tulsa County Jury Trials Postponed Due To Water Damage At Courthouse

Jury trials remain on hold after flooding in the jury assembly room of the Tulsa County courthouse last week. All civil and criminal jury trials have been canceled, which could cause real rescheduling problems once the damage is mitigated.

Heavy rain on September 2, 2014, and a broken drain line are to blame. Water in some places was knee deep. Cleanup from the incident has the jury room sealed off after being flooded.

Susan Witt of the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office said it may take up to three weeks before the assembly room is ready for use. The assembly room is set up to sequester potential jury members to keep them from talking to the general public about their cases. Judges and attorneys are concerned contractors repairing the damage might interact with potential jury members.

Air in the jury assembly room is being tested for mold spores, and once the room is determined to be safe, jurors could return sometime next week.

Tulsa County Maintenance Director, Dan Belding said, "Once the testing's back and it's good, then we go.”

Until then, several murder cases set for trial this week are now on hold.

"What we're losing is the opportunity for a defendant to see the whites of a juror's eyes," said District Attorney Elect, Steve Kunzweiler.

Jurors simply have no place to sit while the air quality gets checked, and that has everyone involved in the courts shifting their schedules.

"That's an impact not only on witnesses, victim's families who were expecting, we tell them months out or this was the date, get ready, all those emotions that are being built up and then to have something like this happen,” Kunzweiler said.

Drug court and pre-trial release offices are now crammed into a conference room on the third floor and a drug analyzer used to test 100 people a day was damaged forcing people to go elsewhere to get tested.

"We're all running pretty smoothly now, but it's just kind of crowded," said Chris Worsham, with Tulsa County Court Services.

Kunzweiler said trials have been delayed because of winter weather, but nothing like this.

"But we want to make sure we have an environment that's safe for everybody to be trying those cases in," he said.

Restoration crews will have to do an air quality test in every room in the basement before it's ready for anyone to move back in.

"And this area will be put back together again, which will be your wall board, your baseboard and painting to get it put back together again the way it was before," said Belding.

Judges will be meeting Tuesday morning to decide if they'll be able to hold court next week because of the closed jury room.

For now, if you received a jury summons to appear this week in Tulsa County, the Court Clerk's Office said you don't need to show up.

That potential interaction could have more serious legal consequences than the problems caused by rescheduling trials, officials say.

The DA's Office says because of state budget cuts, the courts are losing nine weeks this year to fund jury trials.