Officials Promote Virtual Court System

When Nebraska's Directed Health Measures (DHM) set in place social limits, it also restricted typical court proceedings, and court officials learned quickly how to adapt.

On May 18, the Cheyenne County Commissioners Zoom meeting included a discussion with court officials on purchasing equipment to allow for more virtual conferencing. Cheyenne County Sheriff Adam Frerichs, Deputy Ron Kissler, and Judge Wiemer met with the commissioners with a proposal to purchase equipment for virtual conferencing within the court system.

During the period when the Cheyenne County Courthouse building was closed in response to the coronavirus and the DHMs, many of the court proceedings were done by conference calls or video conferencing. Judge Derek Wiemer told the commissioners if a person was already in custody, everything was done by phone.

“It's gone immensely well,” he said.

Wiemer credited the court officials and staff for the efficiency of the program when the courts were closed.

“I think it is important to note how well everyone's been working together,” he said.

They also noted how cost-effective phone conferencing has been, not needing to escort inmates to the courtroom, drive people from other facilities to appear in court.

The procedure is still being researched. During the meeting, Wiemer, Kissler and Frerichs said the primary investment will be laptop designated computers.

Commissioner Randy Miller encouraged Wiemer, Kissler and Frerichs to plan the project well before launching it.

"Let's make sure we do it well," Miller said.

"That's been our thought too," Kissler said. "We don't want to come back with 'one more thing.'"