Feds are on the job: Courthouses may be closed over coronavirus, but don’t go rob a bank

Although many courthouses in California are shut down operations temporarily because of the new coronavirus, that doesn’t mean the criminal justice system has ground to a halt, especially at the federal level.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento is still working, although most of the prosecutors are doing so from home and, at times, making court appearances by phone. The FBI, U.S Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies also are still involved in active investigations, McGregor Scott, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said Friday.

“We remain open and functioning, and we are finding ways to adapt,” Scott said.

His office is in the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse at 5th and I streets in downtown Sacramento, which has been closed to the public. The facility, like others in the district, remain accessible to federal workers and tenants, Scott said.

Unlike Sacramento Superior Court and other state courts that have shut down operations, some court cases are continuing although Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller issued orders this week postponing trials until May 1 and closing the Sacramento courthouse and other federal court buildings in Fresno, Redding, Bakersfield, Yosemite and Modesto.

But hearings are still taking place, including one Mueller presided over Friday by telephone with more than a dozen attorneys and state officials. The topic: coronavirus in prisons.