Yakima County

FILE — The Yakima County Courthouse, Nov. 3, 2016.

For a limited time, people with outstanding warrants in Yakima County District Court can deal with them without having to go to jail.

From now until September, people with warrants from district court can appear at a hearing and have the warrant quashed, and a new court date set, said Therese Murphy, the district court’s administrator.

District courts handle traffic infractions, misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor cases. Like the rest of the state’s court system, Yakima County’s district court is coping with a case backlog due to COVID-19 restrictions on court operations and jail booking rules.

Also, some defendants were concerned about showing up in court for hearings during the pandemic.

As a result, there are outstanding warrants that have not been served, and if they are served it would add to the court’s workload, according to a court news release.

“Under normal circumstances, when we’re not dealing with COVID and booking restrictions, (defendants with warrants) would be required to turn themselves in to jail, post bail or pay a warrant fee,” Murphy said.

Under the court’s “warrant recall program,” defendants in district court, Union Gap and Grandview municipal courts will be able to schedule a hearing where they can appear, either in person or via Zoom software, and have the judge cancel the warrant and set a new court date, Murphy said.

If the person does not show up for the new date, a warrant will again be issued, Murphy said.

The program will continue until September, Murphy said, as the court continues to resume normal operations.

For information on the program, go to http://bit.ly/warrantrecall or call the court at 509-574-1806.

Reach Donald W. Meyers at dmeyers@yakimaherald.com or on Twitter: donaldwmeyers, or https://www.facebook.com/donaldwmeyersjournalist.

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