A surge in COVID-19 cases, including the more transmissible and infectious delta variant, has led to a renewal of restrictions at the McAllen federal courthouse.
Criminal and civil trials scheduled to be held now through Sept. 6 have been summarily delayed and will need to be rescheduled, according to a joint order handed down Friday by the three judges who oversee the courthouse.
“The current surge of COVID-19 cases and Delta variant infections has increased the risks to public health and those involved in selecting juries and conducting jury trials,” reads the order signed by U.S. District Judges Ricardo H. Hinojosa, Randy Crane and Micaela Alvarez.
COVID AND THE COURT
Despite the delay in trials scheduled to occur over the next month, the courthouse will remain open to the public and those having business there.
The order also leaves holding bench trials up to the judges’ individual discretion, as well as “in-person hearings, sentencing proceedings, scheduling conferences, and other court proceedings,” the order reads.
The new restrictions come a little more than a month after the courthouse resumed normal operations for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The trio of judges handed down the June 1 order lifting restrictions on in-person access to the courthouse just as cases of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations had been trending downward for months, thanks in large part to the availability of several safe vaccines.
However, vaccination efforts began to stall just a few months after they first became available through emergency use authorization from the FDA — falling from an all-time high of 3 million doses administered per day nationwide in March to a low of 100,000 per day last month.
At the same time, a new, more transmissible and infectious variant of the virus, known as the delta variant, began to sweep across the country.
Health officials estimate the delta variant now represents about 80% of all COVID-19 infections, and have said it is more infectious than chickenpox. Too, the new variant, first detected in India, can infect vaccinated people, causing so-called breakthrough infections that may still be transmissible to others.
Though the Rio Grande Valley has outpaced the rest of the state in vaccination rates, it has not been immune to the staggering COVID-19 increases now seen throughout the country, including delta variant infections.
Over the last 30 days, Valley hospitalizations as a result of the virus have increased more than 459%, according to statistics gathered by Texas Public Radio.
Friday’s joint order renewing restrictions on the federal courthouse is reminiscent of the closures and reduced operations first instituted by the district judges in April 2020.
That order similarly put the kibosh on all pending trials, and also resulted in other court business moving online via Zoom video conference.
When the courthouse resumed regular operations in June, attorneys and court staff could once again be seen congregating inside courtrooms — some even without masks, as the June 1 order allowed the vaccinated to remove their face coverings.
But in recent days, courtrooms have once again sat empty — with lawyers and defendants instead appearing on screens rather than in person.
WESLACO BRIBERY TRIAL
With trials again paused and court proceedings again moving online, federal prosecutors in one case are concerned that trial may again be delayed.
(Dina Arévalo | [email protected])
On Friday, prosecutors in the Weslaco bribery case — the case against three men accused of bilking the city of Weslaco out of millions related to the rehabilitation of its water treatment facilities — filed a motion requesting a status conference as soon as possible.
The trial against the three defendants — former Precinct 1 Hidalgo County Commissioner Arturo “A.C.” Cuellar, Weslaco businessman Ricardo “Rick” Quintanilla, and Daniel J. Garcia, an attorney from Rio Grande City — was slated to get underway with jury selection on Sept. 8.
That’s two days after the judges’ joint order pausing jury trials is set to expire. But as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to trend upward, it remains unclear what will happen in just one month.
“As this Court is aware, the incidence of COVID-19 has increased in the McAllen area and much of the country as of late, which may impact the timing and manner of this trial,” prosecutors wrote in their motion.
The trial date has already been postponed several times, including last July, when similarly high virus numbers led both prosecutors and defense attorneys concerned for the welfare of the numerous people who would need to appear in the “complex” case, including witnesses, jurors, attorneys and court staff.
“Due to the proximity to trial, the parties request that the status conference be held at the earliest convenience of the Court,” the motion further reads.
No date for the status conference had been set as of press time Saturday.
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