Chatham County seeks temporary court venues after fire

Since its iconic courthouse caught fire two weeks ago, the Chatham County court system has tried to shield the already-crowded Orange system from sharing the scheduling burden.

Renovations to an Orange County courtroom have limited space in its courts, but worries that the loss of the neighboring county’s courthouse would add to the space crunch have proven unfounded.

The March 25 fire destroyed Chatham County’s main courtroom, which was used to try both criminal and civil superior court cases. Orange County, which shares a court system with Chatham, offered to provide space to try superior court cases, but the offer was not accepted, said James Stanford, the Orange County clerk of superior court.

Today, court officials will meet with the Chatham County manager’s office to discuss alternative, temporary courtroom venues like the Pittsboro Memorial Library. They said they think solutions like this could help them avoid adding additional case loads to an already overcrowded Orange County court system.

Renovations to the library could begin as early as August, said Jim Woodall, the district attorney of Chatham and Orange counties.

“All that’s tentative because they’ve got to make sure they have enough money,” he said.

In the meantime, a makeshift courtroom has been set up in the Agriculture Auditorium located in the courthouse annex across the street.

Renovations to Orange County’s main courtroom, the Mural Courtroom, have already left that system in a bind, Stanford said. The inability to hold trials in that courtroom, which holds about 250 people, has put an extra burden on Orange County courts.

He said the county would be able to offer space sporadically at best.

“We would of course be more than happy to accommodate them,” Stanford said. “Our problem is we’re already pressed for space.”

Chapel Hill attorney Elliot Brady said he comes to the Orange County district courthouse on Franklin Street nearly every week but has never encountered such overcrowded conditions.

“This is the most crowded as I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “At least twice as many people as I’ve ever seen.”

Despite crowding in Orange, assistant district attorneys have gone to Chatham County to help out with a particularly busy week when the county reviews older DWI cases to dispose of unnecessary ones.

These cases require months of preparation by district attorneys, all of which was lost in the blaze.

Orange County district attorneys handled routine cases while their Chatham County colleagues regathered information.

“We believe that we’ve got this planned out,” he said. “Everybody’s worked together, cooperated.

“Chatham County court’s going to be in Chatham County.”



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