COVID-19 Slows Justice in Pasadena

[UPDATED] COVID-19 has slowed the wheels of justice to a significant extent throughout Pasadena and beyond, and a Pasadena defense attorney says the delays and restrictions that accompany the pandemic are harming defendants’ rights to speedy trials guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment.

Courthouses have continually worked to adjust to the demands of the pandemic, resulting in countless delayed hearings and trials, as well as restricted access to clients, said defense attorney Bill Paparian, who previously served as Pasadena’s Mayor.

“Pasadena is my home court, and the pandemic has had a direct and significant impact in terms of the application of the Bill of Rights protections to criminal defendants in our court system,” Paparian said.

Plexiglass panels have been installed in courtrooms, he said. Hand sanitizer dispensers abound in the hallways, and markings on the floor remind people to keep six feet of distance from one another.

“There’s been a series of orders that have come down from the presiding judge, where most of the work now is being done virtually either by telephonic conference or by video conference,” according to Paparian.

“The Sixth Amendment protects the rights of accused persons. It includes the right to a speedy trial and the right to a public trial,” he said. “There are no speedy trials going on right now. Everything is being postponed.”

Even when the courts have attempted to ramp up operations such as jury trials, getting jurors to respond to summonses during the pandemic has been a challenge, said Paparian, a former City Councilman and onetime mayor of Pasadena.

“A lot of these Sixth Amendment protections are not going to be honored because people are going to be coming to court wearing masks. How do you interview a potential juror when you can’t see their facial expressions, the nonverbal communication component of selecting a jury?” he asked.

With whispering between attorneys and clients impossible while maintaining social distancing, “How do the attorney and his client communicate with each other in the middle of a trial? How, how are you going to be able to sit next to your client when you have to keep six feet away?”

As officials continue looking for solutions to ease the growing legal backlog, there is increasing talk of holding virtual criminal trials, Paparian said. 

“This is totally unchartered territory.”

Paparian added he was optimistic the situation would improve with the mass distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and the waning of the pandemic.

Pasadena City Attorney/City Prosecutor Michele Bagneris said the challenges imposed by the pandemic have been “significant in many respects, but we’re still managing to have business taken care of and ensure that there is fairness in the cases as much as possible.”

“While we’ve had to do a lot of adjustment, I think the judges and the courts are trying their best to be fair to both the prosecution and defendants in criminal cases and both the plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases,” she said.

The city prosecutor’s office handles only misdemeanor or infraction criminal cases. Felony cases are prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

“Some of the bigger changes are virtual appearances,” according to Bagneris. “You see that more in civil cases, where the judge is in court and everybody else is someplace else.”

With virtual proceedings come technical difficulties, which can be frustrating, she said.

“On the criminal side, there are more personal appearances because we have someone’s rights and justice at issue. But we have seen more of the defense lawyers may call in. Our prosecutors staff the courthouses, so they still go in and staff the courthouse,” Bagneris said.

To decrease crowding, court calendars are being filled less densely than usual, she said.

“There’ll be fewer matters on the calendar, so not as many people need to be around. As a result, everything is delayed. Everything is slower,” she said. “Misdemeanor trials pretty much haven’t happened since probably February, maybe early March.”

“On a civil case… they’ve been putting cases out even to 2022. So, one day, whenever things resume with more court appearances and trials and jurors being selected, it’s going to be a real impact on our system,” Bagneris said.

Court officials have been working to try to resolve cases as often as possible prior to trial through plea arrangements, when appropriate, Bagneris said.

“It seems to me that more cases are being disposed of pre-trial than before,” she said. “And a lot of that has to do with the judge’s encouragement, and both sides are impacted.”

In addition to slowing down proceedings for defendants, delays are generally not desirable for the prosecution, either, Bagneris said. 

“The longer you wait, the farther you get away from when something happened, the harder it is to get witnesses available, to have fresh recollections of what happened, and those kinds of things,” she said.

“We are all trying our best to ensure fairness and justice, particularly in the criminal court, but also in the civil court,” Bagneris said. “And while all of us have to deal with, adjusted schedules and delays, we try to be fair in what we propose and what the ultimate result is.”