Assignment of Cases

New cases shall be randomly assigned by the Clerk of the District Court, except for domestic violence cases, cases of capital, first degree and second degree murder, and any special categories of misdemeanor and felony cases assigned to specialty courts. All such new criminal cases (except those noted above) shall be subject to assignment or re-assignment to one judge for purposes of efficiency and consistency.

Any case, at any time, may be transferred between divisions of the criminal court department by agreement of the assigned judges.

When two or more cases are filed (arrest warrants issued) against one defendant, all cases involving the same defendant shall be assigned to the division with the lowest-numbered case. When co-defendant cases are filed, all co-defendants shall be assigned to the same judge which division has the lowest-numbered case as determined by random assignment. Consolidation of co-defendant cases shall take precedence over the assignment of multiple cases against one defendant to one division or judge.

In the event a defendant is on probation or felony DUI post-imprisonment supervision (i.e., “open cases”) from any case filed in this district court, any new case(s) against this defendant shall be transferred to the division assigned to the open case(s). If the defendant has more than one open case in different divisions when any new case(s) is filed against this defendant, the new case(s) shall be assigned to the division that has the lowest case number of the open cases. Once a defendant has been sent to the Department of Corrections to serve the sentence imposed or the defendant has completed his/her probation and been released, any subsequently filed criminal case against such defendant shall be randomly assigned.

Domestic violence cases shall be assigned to the District Court Judge who has the responsibility for the Domestic Violence Docket, except for sexual abuse and homicide cases which shall be randomly assigned.

Cases involving allegations of domestic violence will be designated as Domestic Violence cases. “Domestic Violence” is any harmful physical contact, threat of harmful contact, harassment or destruction of property between associated individuals or formerly associated individuals used as a method of coercion, control, revenge or punishment which includes:

1. Spouses, whether residing together or not;
2. Former spouses, whether residing together or not;
3. Persons who are involved in ongoing, intimate relationships with each other, regardless of whether they currently live together or have done so in the past;
4. Persons who have in the past had an ongoing, intimate relationship with each other, regardless of whether they lived together or not;
5. Persons, eighteen years of age or older who are blood or step-related to one another (e.g., father/daughter, step-son/step-father, brother/sister, etc.).

Cases involving any murder charge captioned above shall be assigned on a rotating basis by criminal division number in ascending order beginning with the lowest numbered court. Co-defendants will be assigned to the same court.

At the call of the first appearance, court assignment of each case shall be announced, and each case shall be set down for a second appearance or other proceedings in the assigned court.