SAN ANTONIO – Remote court hearings conducted by judges as a result of a moratorium on jury service have reduced courtroom activity at the Bexar County Courthouse and the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center.
“We wanted to wait a little while to see if court proceedings got back to normal, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Monday. “At this point, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen anytime soon.”
That meant doing what Salazar called “reallocating resources.” He has begun moving bailiffs to other areas, including filling shifts left open by detention officers who had tested positive for COVID-19.
“It was kind of a godsend to have these courthouse deputies free so that we could move them around,” Salazar said.
With the safety of courthouse employees and visitors top of mind, and aware of the numbers of jail inmates and staff members who have contracted the illness, the sheriff said that the transfers would remain in place until the COVID-19 crisis subsides.
“We don’t want anybody crossing back over to the courthouse because, quite frankly, they could not only be spreading an illness from the jail to the courthouse but vice versa," he said.
Salazar said the change also applies to inter-department transfers.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
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