Judge begins sorting status of court cases

The Superior Court judge who propelled a new way of conducting court business in the Augusta area is the first judge to tackle his load of assigned cases.

This week in Richmond County Superior Court, Judge Duncan D. Wheale is conducting "calendar clearing." The intent, as he explained Monday before going through a list of 414 criminal cases assigned to him, is to find out where each case stands.

It took nearly all day, but by late Monday afternoon the list of cases pending for trial had been whittled down to about 180.

The rest of the cases will be scheduled for sentencing, dismissed by prosecutors or sent to the sheriff's office for the defendants' arrest for not appearing for court.

About 83 cases already had been disposed of, but paperwork had not reached the clerk's office, where it must be recorded for the case to become official. Prosecutors will have to ensure the paperwork is in order for most of those cases.

Prosecutors Hank Syms and Tom Peterson, who have been assigned to Judge Wheale's court, will need to talk with defense attorneys about the 180 cases still listed as pending trial.

On Thursday, Judge Wheale will hold a calendar clearing for civil cases assigned to him. He has 364 civil cases in Richmond County.

Judge Wheale is one of five Superior Court judges in the Augusta Judicial Circuit who preside over criminal and civil cases. Three other judges preside over domestic cases involving divorce, restraining orders, and child custody and support. Under new local rules, the domestic-case judges also will preside over death-penalty cases.

The judges, who handle cases in Richmond, Columbia and Burke counties, had to revise their local court rules in May because of a Georgia Supreme Court mandate.

That court rejected the Augusta Judicial Circuit's request to continue a decades-old procedure that did not include case assignment. The Augusta circuit was the only one of the state's 49 judicial circuits that had opted out of the uniform rules requiring case assignment.

Judge Wheale advocated for case assignment and wrote to the Supreme Court justices in April, asking them to help change the system in the Augusta circuit.

A few days later, the justices sent a two-paragraph letter to the Augusta circuit's Superior Court judges that commanded the change.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.