The Ingham County Circuit Court has hired a visiting judge to help with cases that were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The court stopped holding most criminal jury trials for more than a year because of COVID-related Michigan Supreme Court rules. Now, visiting Judge Geoffrey Neithercut is helping the court to catch up.
Neithercut is prioritizing criminal cases where a defendant has been in jail for an extended time period, Chief Judge Richard Garcia said.
As of this July, there were 33 inmates in the Ingham County jail who had been waiting more than 400 days for a trial in the circuit court, Garcia said, referring to a report provided by the sheriff's office.
That compares to nine inmates who had been waiting that long in July 2019, before the pandemic struck.
The bottleneck raises due-process concerns for the defendants forced to wait more than a year for their right to a trial.
And Garcia says the delay is difficult for victims, as well.
“Somebody also who was a victim of a crime is really waiting to get closure and to get the justice that they need to heal and move forward," Garcia said. "This pandemic has had a horrible impact on folks who were victimized by crime."
Neithercut retired from the bench in Genesee County in 2018 after age limits stopped him from seeking reelection. Ingham County Circuit Court will pay him $400 per day for his work as a visiting judge, Garcia said.
Many of the cases assigned to Neithercut may not go to trial, but Garcia says the ability to assign a trial date will speed up cases that were languishing by encouraging people to reach plea deals.
Having a trial date set, "generates people to do business," Garcia said. "The affording of jury trials is kind of the lubricant that makes the engine go, in terms of providing due process."
