An El Paso County judge on Thursday threw out a contempt charge he’d previously leveled against a public defender who refused to show up in person for a jury trial due to COVID-19 concerns, saying he believed the attorney learned his lesson and needed no further punishment.
Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Robert Lowrey said he considered public defender Adam Steigerwald’s refusal to show up in person last October to be an assault on the rule of law, suggesting the attorney had made up his mind to defy the judge no matter what.
“It appeared to me that you basically threw down that gauntlet, basically baited this court, and said, ‘All right here is what I am doing, what are you going to do about it?'” Lowrey said during a nearly two-hour sentencing hearing Thursday. “That’s what it looked like to me…and to maintain the integrity of this office and this process, I simply could not allow that to happen.”
Steigerwald testified that he stayed home because he was afraid and did not feel it was safe to attend an in-person trial. He said he ignored the judge’s instructions to appear in person reluctantly, and only as a last resort.
“It was not my intent to be disrespectful to anyone,” he said. “I’m not going to say I was confused or didn’t understand what Judge Lowrey said. …I didn’t want to disobey an order of Judge Lowrey or any court…but that was the decision that I made.”
He apologized for creating a difficult situation for the court and said he regretted that “this has happened.”
Lowrey found Steigerwald in contempt of court in October during a spike in COVID-19 cases in El Paso County when the lawyer violated the judge’s order that everyone involved in an Oct. 27 trial be present in the courtroom for the proceedings.
Steigerwald instead appeared through a video streaming platform, and at the time told Lowrey that he did not believe an in-person trial could be held safely given the surging rates of COVID-19.
Lowrey disagreed, telling Steigerwald the trial could go on given the health precautions taken by those present, including wearing masks, and found Lowrey in contempt, a charge that carries sanctions ranging from a fine to six months in jail.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, the judge reiterated his belief that the courtroom was safe.
“Aside from your own personal reticence, I don’t know that there was a safer place in this town than this courthouse,” he said. “Certainly safer than Home Depot or the grocery store. That was my perception then, and it still is today.”
The case appears to be the first in the state in which a public defender was held in contempt for refusing to show up in court because of the coronavirus, and it highlighted the difficulties courts have faced during the pandemic as the justice system tries to carry on despite safety constraints.
Jury trials in El Paso County were suspended because of the pandemic two weeks after Steigerwald was held in contempt. He said Thursday he’s urged other attorneys not to take the same approach.
“I’ve advised them of how dramatic of a thing it is to do what I did, and I have advised against it,” he told the judge. “It was not my intention to cause chaos in the courts.”
