Meck’s first jury trial since March ends due to possible juror exposure to COVID-19

Mecklenburg County’s first jury trial in almost nine months is expected to end in a mistrial Tuesday morning due to repeated fears of juror exposure to COVID-19.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Bell told the Observer that she would formally announce the mistrial in the heroin-trafficking case of Devin Tucker at 9:15 a.m. in her courtroom. The trial began Nov. 16.

Jury deliberations in the case already had been suspended for more than a week after a juror began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms at home before Thanksgiving. Under North Carolina law, a juror cannot be replaced once deliberations begin.

A second juror, who traveled during the Thanksgiving holiday, notified the courts Monday of being exposed to relatives now showing multiple COVID-like symptoms.

Bell said Monday that the suspension of the trial — with another one possible — has called into question the fairness and safety of continuing.

“The delays have reached the point where I find myself not only attempting to protect the health and safety of the jurors but also the rights of the state and defendants to a fair trial,” Bell said.

“When the delays between the close of the evidence and the deliberation are of this length, it calls the trial’s fairness into question.”

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather declined to say whether his office will bring Tucker’s case back before another jury. Tucker had been charged with multiple felony counts.

But the prosecutor said Bell’s decision is in keeping with the courts’ pledge during the pandemic to balance safety and justice.

“Sometimes that involves taking a pause and doing what you can to get it right — to preserve both justice and health,” Merriweather said.

Motions for mistrial denied

As of Monday, no one inside the courtroom for Tucker’s trial has tested positive for the virus, which has killed some 267,000 Americans and infected more than 13.5 million.

But earlier this month, one juror was excused during testimony after reporting a possible exposure to the disease. The juror later tested negative, court officials say.

Then, after jury deliberations had begun and the remaining alternate jurors routinely excused by Bell, a second juror reported experiencing possible COVID-19 symptoms at home, postponing the trial for all of last week.

That juror also eventually tested negative for the disease. But the absence raised concerns among other members of the panel, Bell said.

A travel conflict involving another juror further delayed the trial Monday.

The fate of the trial was further thrown into doubt when the third juror, who told Bell before the start of the trial that he planned to travel over the Thanksgiving break, reported his possible exposure. On Monday afternoon, the courthouse was working with health officials to arrange rapid testing for the juror.

Due to the trial delays so far, defense attorney James Exum of Charlotte had twice called for a mistrial. Bell denied both motions. Late Monday afternoon, however, she notified the attorneys, clerks and jurors of her plans to order a mistrial, she said.

Exum did not respond to an Observer phone call Monday seeking comment.

According to health privacy protocols, the courthouse will notify the remaining jurors if their fellow member tests positive for COVID-19.

COVID-19 and the courts

After the widespread arrival of the coronavirus in March, the North Carolina courts shut down jury trials and most courthouse activity.

COVID-19 has had an equally massive impact on the operations of courts nationwide.

In the federal courts of Western North Carolina, which has adopted one of the most aggressive pandemic trial schedules in the country, judges and defense attorneys have openly disagreed over the propriety of holding court hearings during a health crisis.

In NC federal court, jittery attorneys want to know: Should we even be here?

When the North Carolina courts called for a phased-in resumption of jury trials this month, it limited the reopenings to Mecklenburg and other counties that had spent weeks planning how to hold the trials safely, even with a second wave of COVID-19 cases crashing in around them.

Courtroom seating was rearranged to maintain social distancing. Bibles were not used to swear in witnesses. Cases were selected that lent themselves to speedier trials, reducing the time jurors, judges, attorneys and courtroom staff would spend in closed quarters.

Yet, if officials hoped the Tucker trial would be routine, it’s been anything but.

Bell said the selection of Tucker’s jury was one of the quickest she’s ever been part of, with none of the prospective members asking to be dismissed out of concerns of COVID-19. She said the 12 jurors and four alternatives picked also have complimented the courts on the safety measures put in place and adhered to during the trial.

But court officials have learned that while they can control conditions inside the courtroom, they cannot stop what walks through the doors each day.

“None of the delays in the trial have been based on anything done or not done by the court system,” Bell said. “It’s been about what happens out in the public.”

Backlog in violent-crime cases

Earlier this month, Merriweather announced a reorganization of his office to address a growing backlog of violent crime cases due to the pandemic’s shutdown of the courts.

As of two weeks ago, the county had more than 700 felony cases awaiting trial — including 100 homicides and another 150 involving rapes, assaults and other violent offenses, numbers that are growing by the day.

In the courthouse’s reopening plan, officials pledged that the decision to hold trials will be “guided by science, medical advice and the rights of individuals appearing in court to due process and a fair and open adjudicatory process.”

However, the statewide surge in new COVID-19 cases is already surpassing some of the disease measures the courthouse pledged to use to gauge whether the jury trials should continue.

For now, the courthouse is pushing ahead. Merriweather said his office will not sacrifice safety.

“I fully expect that the safety protocols that we’ve put in place will make a deliberate process even more deliberate, and make a process that involves attention to detail even that much more detailed,” he said

A second jury trial is scheduled to begin this week: an assault with a deadly weapon case against a female defendant.

Jury selection already is underway.