Attorney requests trial delay due to court’s digital records still being inaccessible after statewide security incident | News, Sports, Jobs
photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World
The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in May of 2023. The center houses the Douglas County District Court and other county services.
A statewide security incident that has made court records inaccessible online is being felt in courtrooms, and in at least one case locally it has led to a request to delay a trial — a request that was denied.
A Douglas County judge on Wednesday denied a defense attorney’s request to postpone a trial because of the digital records being unavailable.
As the Journal-World reported, the state’s court records and filing systems experienced a security incident on Oct. 13 that has forced courts across the state to use paper filings instead of the online Odyssey and E-file court records systems. Douglas County began using the Odyssey system in April, and anything filed between then and the time of the incident is unavailable online. The Office of Judicial Administration said in a news release on Oct. 16 that the outage would last two weeks. The office has not specified the nature of the security incident.
Lawrence attorney Cooper Overstreet asked the court to delay a trial for Devaris Lamar Howard, 21, of Gadsden, Alabama, that is scheduled for Nov. 6. Howard is charged with two felony counts of sexual extortion of a then 18-year-old woman by communicating a threat to injure her reputation by distributing an image or video of her in the nude, according to charging documents. The charges relate to a series of events between August 2022 and October 2022, as the Journal-World reported.
photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World
Devaris Lamar Howard, left, is pictured with his defense attorney, Cooper Overstreet, at a hearing in Douglas County District Court on March 23, 2023. Howard is charged with two felony counts of sexual extortion.
Overstreet argued that it would be prejudicial to Howard to go forward with the trial because he cannot adequately prepare for the trial without access to the digital records. He said state officials have said the system could be down for a month or even longer but have not given a concrete timeline.
“We have gone from driving a sports car to driving a horse and buggy,” Overstreet said of using paper filings instead of the online system.
However, Judge Amy Hanley said that Howard’s case is too old to be affected by the system outage and that he and the prosecution should be in possession of any filings that may be relevant to the case. She said that any filings that Overstreet did not have could be requested from the court or from the prosecution.
Overstreet said that would not be enough and that he feared his defense of Howard would be ineffective without access to online records. He said that while he would not accuse the state of withholding documents, he may need to request documents that he does not want the state to know he has requested since it may reveal parts of the defense strategy.
Hanley said that granting Overstreet’s request was too consequential and that if she delayed Howard’s trial she would be expected to delay other trials for the same reason.
“By your reasoning I should delay every trial before me,” Hanley said.
Assistant District attorney Jennifer Tatum said that the state is experiencing the same issues that Overstreet has raised but that she is prepared for the trial and objected to a continuance.
Hanley denied the motion and instructed Overstreet to be prepared for the trial on Nov. 6.
“If I granted this motion, every case that is affected by this issue would need to be moved. Mr. Howard is not in custody, but many are,” Hanley said.
While Howard was not in custody at the time of the hearing, an issue came up at the end of the hearing concerning charges that had been filed against him in another jurisdiction and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Hanley ordered Tatum to file extradition papers immediately to address the new pending charges.
The parties did not discuss the specific nature of the charges or where they were filed, but Overstreet said he believes the cases may be connected and asked the court to set a hearing as soon as possible before Howard’s trial.
Hanley scheduled a hearing for Nov. 1 to address the matter. Howard was taken into custody by Lawrence police officers after the hearing.
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