SAN ANTONIO ā Faced with the prospect of no jury trials for the next three months, the only option for criminal defense attorneys is to attempt to resolve cases through Zoom hearings.
āIām used to doing deals across the table usually ending in a handshake,ā veteran defense attorney James Tocci said Thursday. āThe Pandemic doesnāt allow for that.ā
Defense attorney Joseph āMickāAguilera said remote hearings are often a challenge.
āIt now takes a day, a day-and-a-half, sometimes three days, to get something done that would normally be done in a couple of minutes.ā
Another serious concern is that clients who are in jail waiting for their day in court are worried about contracting COVID-19.
āMy client wasnāt positive at the time, but he got put in a cell with somebody thatās positive and he wanted to know what I could do to get him out of there,ā Aguilera said.
Those situations are the focus of the bulk of the remote hearings, according to Tocci.
āTrying to get judges to agree to lower bonds ... whatever we can do legally to help facilitate them getting out of jail,ā he said.
Both men agreed that decreasing revenues as a result of no jury trials has also become a serious problem.
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