By Crescenzo Vellucci
Vanguard Capitol Bureau
SACRAMENTO – Tuesday, the day after a Monday Veteran’s Day holiday, there were no less than eight homicide and attempted murder trials, with a sprinkling of robbery, burglary, sexual battery and rape trials scheduled to start about 8:30 or 9 a.m. at Sacramento County Superior Court.
Just a typical day in the life of the Sacramento County courthouse. Kinda.
Turns out – not that those cases are not important – but an unplanned calamity in the Sacramento County Jail put all of those trials on the back burner for hours.
Although details are scarce, there were sheriff’s deputies down. Well, not down, or up…but “caught” in a jail elevator for hours.
Attorneys began to report that, except for out-of-custody defendants (those not in jail), trials and other pre-trial courts were much quieter than normal. Some reported that deputies who were to bring in-custody defendants to court were stuck in a jail elevator.
The main jail was even shut down to everyone, even lawyers.
According to a thin, but helpful, report from a spokesperson for the court:
“One main elevator stopped working at 8:00 and then the remaining ones went down. Took about 20 minutes to trouble shoot and by 10 am all were operational. Judges were notified and court was delayed at the jail due to delay in the movement of in custody inmates. Out of custody cases were heard during the down time.”
