December 23, 2020

Waiver and Jury Trial Protocols for January 2021

The following waiver and jury trial protocols will go into effect on Monday, January 4 for the waiver program and Monday, January 25 for jury trials.

The Waiver Protocol attached below addresses custody waiver cases currently scheduled for trials in the Court of Common Pleas:

One or two Major/Homicide Judges have been assigned to each waiver room in an effort to assist with conducting more waiver trials during the pandemic. The volume for each waiver room is what dictates the need for one or two judges.

Criminal Listings will create separate buckets for each Judge in their respective courtroom labeled as “Waiver Trial Program” this way the cases can be distinguished from the regular calendar list and allow the ability to track the productivity and statistics of this project.

Cases currently scheduled in the Waiver rooms for March 2021 dates and beyond, will be rescheduled for a Status Hearing in the “Waiver Trial Program” bucket before the assigned Major/ Homicide Judge(s), beginning Monday, January 4, 2021. The judges are free to schedule the matters for trials in their respective courtrooms on dates consistent on the availability of the defendant and all necessary parties.

It is imperative that all court proceedings through final disposition, remain in the designated “Waiver Trial Program” calendar buckets.

Below are the number of active local custody cases currently scheduled in the waiver rooms for each month, as of December 18, 2020. As indicated in the charts below, Judge DeFino-Nastasi will be assigned cases from 604, Judges Ehrlich & Scott will be assigned cases from 704, Judges O’Keefe & Clemons will be assigned cases from 804 and Judge S. Johnson will be assigned cases from 904.

Due to the pandemic, we will continue to only handle custody trials. All bail matters can continue to proceed by way of ZOOM.