South Dakota courtrooms adjust to long holiday Friday, December 20, 2019

KELO News

South Dakota state workers will have both this Monday and Tuesday off. That means courthouses across the state will be closed from 5 p.m. Friday all the way through Christmas Day. That’s a stretch of five days without any formal legal proceedings. But some judges will preside over a special session on Monday so jail inmates have a timely hearing and the courts can avoid a massive backlog of cases come next Thursday.

The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but they never come to a compete stop, even during a lengthy holiday time-off.

“When you count Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and Christmas Day, five days is a long time to shut down the criminal justice system here in Minnehaha County,” Second Judicial Circuit Judge Jon Sogn said.

Read more at: https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/south-dakota-courtrooms-adjust-to-long-holiday/