Tarrant County judge says he’s balancing coronavirus restrictions with Constitution
On Monday, about 30 people gathered inside a courtroom at Tarrant County’s juvenile justice center for 23 detention hearings. The amount of people inside the room went against CDC recommendations for gatherings and social distancing amid fears of a new coronavirus spread.
The next day, Judge Alex Kim said he would do what he can to comply with county and CDC’s restrictions against crowds in Tarrant County while also complying with the state constitution to keep an open court. On Wednesday, it was reported to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the afternoon’s detention hearings were kept to 10 people in the room at a time.
Tarrant County has banned gatherings of any size in the county, except for essential business, which the court falls under. Instead, the order, signed by Judge Glen Whitley, asks that people who are gathering at businesses and government entities deemed essential use social distancing — meaning standing at least six feet away from another person, which the Star-Telegram was told wasn’t happening in Kim’s courtroom Monday.
Asked about the number of people inside his courtroom, Kim said, “The problems with courts compared to other government agencies is that there’s open courts. The public is entitled to see what’s going on in courts, and that’s constitutional.
“Now you come into a conflict with the Texas constitution and people having a right to be there versus what the county judge or mayor says is in their order. I think that the Texas constitution trumps that,” he said.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram called Whitley to see if social distancing applied to courthouses and how Kim should operate hearings moving forward. Whitley said he wouldn’t comment without first talking with Kim. He later told the paper that Kim agreed to comply with all provisions to the best of his ability.
“He’s going to comply with social distancing,” Whitley said. “I think it’s a good resolution.”
Other measures are being taken in juvenile court to reduce the threat of a COVID-19 outbreak there, including allowing more juveniles to go home rather than detaining them, canceling all non-essential hearings and canceling hearings that would involve a civilian jury or witness, the Kim said.
Juvenile intake numbers down
Usually around this time of the year, Kim said, there could be more than 100 juveniles detained at the Scott D. Moore Juvenile Justice Center, at 2701 Kimbo Road.
On Tuesday, there were about 70.
“I’m more inclined now to let children go if it’s not a violent offense,” he said. “Now, if they have guns or knives, it’s really tough for me to let them go home because I have to be really confident that they won’t harm the community.”
With schools canceled and many parents either no longer working or working from home, Kim said, fewer kids are getting in trouble.
“Since a lot of parents are no longer working, they can offer a lot more supervision, which means I’m more comfortable with letting them go home,” he said.
Most children who find themselves in front of Kim were arrested either going or coming from school, or while in school.
“This is why juvenile arrests go down in the summer, and actually the juvenile referrals have dropped a lot in the last couple of weeks, and a large part of that is more supervision at home, and there’s no conflict at school,” Kim said.
Court hearings
Unlike adult courts, Kim said, juvenile courts are held to a strict schedule of hearings. Adult courts in Tarrant County also have the ability to live stream court services, which keeps them in compliance with the constitution. Kim said the juvenile courts don’t have that type of technology.
Juveniles who are arrested have to go in front of a judge within two business days. Kim says his court sees them on the first business day. Once they’re in custody, the juveniles have to see a judge every 10 business days.
Those detention hearings are held every day, Kim said. For about two weeks, he shifted the hearings to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but decided after the trial run that continuing to hold the detention hearings every day was better.
“A juvenile court can’t really shut down because these hearings have to be held,” he said.
Whitley said only one juvenile will be allowed in the courtroom at a time, which will lessen the amount of people who need to be inside. Kim also said that the juveniles will stand to address him rather than sit at a table to ensure they don’t touch any surfaces.
“One thing (Kim) said is that he sometimes has families living in the same house coming in and asked if we can keep them together,” Whitley said. “I said I don’t see a problem with that. If they’re living together, then there’s not a real reason to make three or four of them stand 20 feet apart because they’re living together.”
On March 23, juvenile court employees received an email that said they haven’t been allowed to work from home yet because the juvenile court system is considered an essential service.
Kim said he has canceled jury trials and is not holding hearings that would involve a witness who is a private citizen.
There have been hearings recently that have been attended by more than 10 people, but Kim said for public hearings, he is not going to close his doors.
“Some people demand to go into the court and my interpretation is they’re entitled to be in court,” he said.
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 2:22 PM.
