Los Angeles County, still in the midst of a surge in violent crime, will suspend all criminal trials for two weeks due to the challenge of dealing with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to presiding county Judge Eric Taylor.
The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday:
Presiding Judge Eric Taylor said trials will be paused until Jan. 19, a delay that will allow court officials to “balance access to justice with local public safety needs.”
“I will continue to consult closely with L.A. County Department of Public Health… officials on local conditions and any changes to public health orders and guidance during this winter surge,” Taylor said in a statement. “For the second consecutive winter, holiday gatherings have fueled widespread community transmission.”
The news came a day after a panel of judges ordered the suspension of all federal trials in Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties. There was no timetable given for a return to normal operations in the federal court system.
The variant is spreading rapidly in California despite the fact that the state has some of the most restrictive policies in the country, including a statewide indoor mask mandate imposed by Governor Gavin Newsom last month.
The test positivity rate in the state reached a seven-day average of 20.4%, the highest of the pandemic thus far, with an average of 59,000 new cases daily since New Year’s Eve — double the number experienced during last year’s winter surge in parts of the state, and nearly three times as high in L.A. County.
In Orange County, Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby, who opposed vaccine mandates and was also apparently unvaccinated, passed away recently from the coronavirus.
Further north, in San Francisco, hundreds of teachers and teachers’ aides were absent due to the coronavirus as classes resumed this week, and hundreds of students in the broader Bay Area tested positive, preventing their return to school.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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