Jury trials expected to resume in Dougherty County in mid-June

ALBANY — As Gilda Radner’s Saturday Night Live character Roseanne Rosannadanna used to remark, “It’s always something; if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

That has been the experience of court proceedings in Dougherty County as an effort to resume criminal trials on April 5 after more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions was stymied by a water leak that soaked much of the building.

On Easter morning, a call center employee taking a walk around the building during a break noticed water gushing on the third floor of the courthouse.

As water does, it seeped down to the basement of the building, ruining furniture and damaging ceilings, security equipment, computers and other items along the way.

On June 15, Dougherty County Superior Court is scheduled to kick off with four days of drug trials. Jury trials in other cases are set for the weeks of July 12 and Aug. 2.

While offices in the building have been re-opened for business, repairing the massive damage will take months. So far county officials do not have a cost estimate or an expected completion date for repairs.

“There’s nothing new on the Judicial Building,” Wendy Howell, public information officer for Dougherty County, said. “They’re still working on it.”

While the county has gone mask-optional in its other buildings, going maskless is not an option in the Judicial Building due to an order from the Georgia Supreme Court, Howell said.

The first-floor bag scanner was among the casualties of the deluge, so bags are not being allowed in the building. The front lobby area where the scanner was located was heavily damaged, so individuals with business inside have had to use side entrances.

A new scanner was ordered a few weeks ago, but the estimated delivery time was eight to 12 weeks.

“The lobby is kind of a mess,” Howell said. “They’re still estimating costs. It’s going to be expensive.”

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