Emergency court hearings have been held in mostly closed courthouses amid the coronavirus outbreak because defendants had to have hearings or be released from jail.
The first one was held April 6 in San Diego Superior Court and the El Cajon courthouse was to hear five cases on Monday, April 13. The courthouse in Chula Vista heard some cases on April 10.
In the hearing April 6, Presiding Judge Lorna Alksne wore a mask, as did others in the courtroom. The prosecutor and defense attorney appeared on video and the defendant listened to the case in a room in jail with a camera.
There will be no jury trials in either criminal or civil cases until June after the California Supreme Court Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye suspended all trials as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the chief justice authorization to suspend jury trials and other powers over the court system following Newsom’s order for people to stay at home unless they are working at an essential business, grocery shopping, or seeking medical treatment.
The emergency hearings involved inmates who did not waive their right for speedy hearings or arraignments. All of the courthouses are essentially closed until May 1.
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An appeals court has overturned the release of the “Bolder Than Most” rapist to rural East County in an opinion that said the judge in 2019 should consider public safety.
The ruling from the 4th District Court of Appeal said a judge applied an incorrect standard in his Aug., 2019 ruling that Alvin Quarles, now 57, could be conditionally released in a program in Jacumba Hot Springs.
Quarles was not released after the same appeals court months earlier stayed the ruling. He remains in Coalinga State Hospital, where he has lived after another judge found him to be a sexually violent predator(SVP) in 2014.
Public safety is one of the most important factors that should be considered, wrote 4th District Court of Appeal Justice Richard Huffman.
Concurring with Huffman were Justices Judith Haller and Terry O’Rourke in the Feb. 24 ruling.
However, they sent Quarles’ case back to San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill for Quarles to possibly try again with a new conditional release petition. A status conference was set for May 1.
Gill, who is in his 80s, is the longest serving Superior Court judge in the county, having been appointed in 1978.
Quarles was sentenced to 50 years in 1989, but his term was considered complete after he served 25 years. The law has since changed.
The appeals court criticized Gill for saying “I hope we are not setting him(Quarles) up for failure.” with Huffman writing “these comments give us pause.”
Huffman wrote that “failure, after being conditionally released, would be devastating not only for Quarles, but more importantly, the public.”
“Quarles is a serial rapist whose crimes were shockingly brutal and destructive,” wrote Huffman. “If he fails after he is conditionally released, considering his past, we shudder to contemplate the consequences of such a failure.”
County Supervisor Dianne Jacob praised the ruling and said Quarles should not be released. The District Attorney’s office appealed Gill’s ruling.
Gill closed some of the proceedings to the press, public, and victims. Quarles was brought down from Coalinga and he told Gill he would not reoffend.
Quarles was dubbed the “Bolder Than Most” rapist because he attacked women in the presence of their partners, sometimes at knifepoint.
He pleaded guilty to committing four rapes, two robberies, and six counts of burglaries. Dozens of other charges were then dismissed with the understanding he would get 50 years.
