AUGUSTA — The Capital Judicial Center opened for business Monday, and despite concerns about enough parking, a last-minute employee off-site parking plan made plenty of room for those using the new courthouse.
The Maine Judicial Branch enacted a plan late last week to have employees park elsewhere, leaving many spaces free for the few members of the public who came to the court Monday. But the true test will be Friday, when all the courtrooms are expected to be in use and the Kennebec County grand jury is scheduled to sit, totaling 75-80 people working in the new judicial center.
Additional Images
• $58 million project cost
• 123,308 gross square footage
• 282 piles driven in to support the structure and reinforce the slope
• 5,400 cubic yards of concrete
• 630 tons of structural steel
• Public wireless access
• Video conferencing in courtrooms, mediation suite, multi-purpose rooms and conference rooms
• Air conditioning and high efficiency lighting
• Six courtrooms, plus access to a seventh in the Kennebec County Superior Courthouse when renovations are completed
Source: Mary Ann Lynch, Maine Judicial Branch
Parking at the courthouse on Winthrop Street is expected to ease once a new public lot is finished. In order to create the new parking lot, three houses were razed over the past week or so, leaving a lone apartment building on Perham Street. Once that building comes down, the lot will be prepared to hold about 90 slots designated for public parking. Completion is expected to be in May.
Employees are parking at Mill Park on Water Street about half a mile from the courthouse, and a shuttle is running them to the building, which is on Winthrop and Perham streets behind the old county courthouse on State Street.
“This is a huge inconvenience for staff, but we had no choice,” Justice Joseph Jabar said in an email Monday. “We have explored the possibility of leasing spaces from the Augusta Parking District and tried unsuccessfully to lease the vacant YMCA lot for the next three months.”
The employees are being shuttled in state vans driven by Kennebec Sheriff’s Office deputies. There were 14 vehicles parked in the large lot at Mill Park on Monday morning.
On Monday the lobby area on the main floor of the new court complex was quiet with entry screening at one end of it and a series of clerks’ windows at the other. Twenty-eight people were scheduled for hearings at 8:30 a.m. in the large arraignment courtroom on the first floor.
Justice Robert Mullen took a break early in the proceedings and then returned to tell the defendants that they did not have to file special forms to request jury trials.
“The arraignment tape is a little dated,” he said. “Your jury trial is presumed.”
He told them the tape was accurate when it was filmed, but things have changed. Part of that change is a move toward a unified docket in criminal cases, which could happen in Kennebec County by April 1. According to the Maine Judicial Branch website, the intent is to resolve cases sooner, eliminate the need for clerks to transfer cases from district to superior court and to decrease the number of times people have to come to court.
Lisa Whittier, acting as lawyer of the day for some of the cases, said the defense attorneys have yet to be trained in that.
There was a little confusion Monday among the defendants as well. One man, charged with failure to register a vehicle, told the judge he went to 95 State St., the former location of Augusta District Court, because that’s what his summons indicated. That building is three blocks south of the new courthouse. His file was retrieved and his matter postponed for a later date.
Whittier said she too was receiving notices for upcoming hearings that still carry the Augusta District Court State Street address.
Several other defendants did not appear, and Mullen issued warrants for them.
Defendants who were ordered to pay fines or sign additional paperwork were directed to a side door that led directly to a clerk’s window. A court security officer took the individual files and opened a small door built into the wall and then pushed a button to alert the clerk.
There was only one defendant in custody Monday at the new judicial center.
Kathy L. Tupper, 50, of Augusta, was in a jail uniform and handcuffs in a stark white area on the side of the courtroom. While she pleaded not guilty to the charge of allowing a dog to be at large, she is being held on separate charges of aggravated drug trafficking.
On the third floor, defendants in the Co-Occurring Disorders Court, waited their turn to speak to Justice Nancy Mills. They report regularly over a period of more than a year as they meet the requirements of the specialty court. The fourth floor attorneys’ lounge was empty.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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