Chugging along

Published 11:00 am Saturday, July 15, 2023

“I’ve been doing this 30 years; I think this is probably the first time we’ve had a jury term in the month of July,” Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones said.

Limestone County courts continue to see an increase in cases on top of playing catch-up for the two years trials were at a stand still due to the COVID pandemic.

“We’ve literally been having jury terms every other week, and the grand jury is full. We have grand jury coming up and a couple of the ones through the end of the year are full. When the judges get their 2024 schedules out, we’ll start scheduling grand jury cases out that far. There are that many cases coming in the door,” Jones said.

He continued, “With the backlog and the volume going up, the judges made the decision that we are going to have jury terms. Every other week has been a jury term, and we’ve been chugging along through court like crazy.”

Jones remains hopeful that a portion of the money Limestone County received from the Opioid Settlement can be used to purchase new grand jury software. At a Limestone County Commission meeting in May 2023, he requested $100,000 but has not heard anything regarding his request.

“We are in a situation right now where the Grand Jury software and the Case Manager software we are currently using is failing. For instance, the last Grand Jury, we had a problem where the software was switching the defendant’s name with the victim’s name,” Jones said. “With this software, if you call me and want to know how many fentanyl cases you prosecuted last year, I can hit a button and tell you in five minutes.”

If the money Jones requested is approved, he said that it will take up to nine months to get the software fully implemented.

The rise in cases stems from multiple factors, according to Jones. The biggest being the COVID shutdown and the other being the rapid growth. He also credits local law enforcement for working well together and catching more criminals.

“The court system in the state shut down, but the criminals did not,” he said. “I saw a figure the other day that Limestone County is adding 10 new people a day. By volume of people moving here and houses being built and the epic growth we are seeing, crime is going to go up.”

Could Limestone County see an additional judge considering the county’s explosive growth? Jones doesn’t seem to think that is likely in the near future.

“The state has a formula they use for a new judgeship. Madison County has been waiting on a new spot for five years and they finally got one,” Jones said.

The Limestone County Courthouse has four court rooms, and there is currently no room for another. Jones believes an additional court room would require another annex or branch courthouse elsewhere.

The manpower needed to handle the influx of cases is another obstacle Jones’s office faced.

“If we were to add another judge, we would have to find some money somewhere to hire more lawyers,” Jones said. “It’s been a tough pace to keep up with.”