HERMANN — Jury trials in the 20th Judicial Circuit will remain on hold at least until June 1 and when they do begin again they will be conducted under a strict set of guidelines.

That’s according to an email sent last week to Circuit Court officials in Gasconade, Franklin and Osage counties by Presiding Circuit Judge I.I. “Ike” Lamke.

The seven circuit and associate circuit judges in the 20th Circuit met en banc March 1 in the Franklin County Judicial Center to consider, among other things, the status of jury trials and the scheduling of courtrooms in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Jury trials came to an abrupt halt last year as the pandemic took hold in the region. At the outset of 2020, court officials in Gasconade County had been preparing to conduct a half-dozen jury trials. To avoid the large gatherings that take place during the jury selection process and during the actual trials, jury trials were postponed.

Gasconade County Circuit Clerk Pam Gruenke said Friday that the presiding circuit judge would be drafting a set of guidelines that would be strictly followed in conducting jury trials once they resume. She noted that June 1 is a target date; the actual resumption of jury trials likely will be dependent on the social-distancing and crowd-size protocols in place in the coming months.

At the outset of this year, those protocols were forcing Gruenke and Gasconade County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Weston to search for suitable spaces away from the courthouse for possible trials.

Although jury trials have been on hiatus since the pandemic arrived in the circuit, there has been court activity. Quite a lot of it, actually, as judges in all three 20th Circuit counties have been dealing with unusually large dockets resulting from postponements prompted by the coronavirus.

Indeed, Gruenke said that Circuit Judge Craig Hellmann’s Feb. 26 Law Day docket in Gasconade County contained 81 cases to be taken up that day. Of those, a half-dozen cases involved the sentencing of defendants. While those half-dozen cases will be removed from the judge’s future dockets, most if not all the other cases could remain active and be taken up, along with any new cases being added to the docket.

Those crowded dockets have made for long hours of work for Circuit Court personnel such as Gruenke and her staff. 

“We’re doing what we can,” the circuit clerk told the Gasconade County Republican.