Douglas County Courts Flooded with Cases due to Pandemic

Cases have been piling up in the Douglas County Attorney’s Office due to the pandemic. Jury trials have resumed following a year-long hiatus.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says those involved with the court system are working very hard to try and keep up.

“It’s raised the stress level here, with the volume of cases we need to try and that we’re trying to catch up on,” Kleine said. “It’s somewhat overwhelming because there’s so many cases that need to be heard.”

Kleine says that there are about 40 murder trials waiting to be heard in the county. Criminal cases filed decreased from 4,861 to 4,472 from 2019 to 2020 in the Douglas County District Court. On the other hand, civil suits increased from 10,102 to 10,996 during the same time period.

Witness testimonies can be affected to a certain degree because of the amount of time that has passed, but Kleine says police recordings of initial interviews do help jog the memory of witnesses.

In 2020, the speedy trial statute was paused and jury trials stopped proceeding. It became nearly impossible to socially distance and have an appropriate number of people in the jury pool during jury selection. Now the courts are working to make up for the lost time in dealing with the large caseload.

Some hearings were done over Zoom and administrator Doug Johnson says that may become more normal in the future.