When the threat of COVID-19 cut short a family vacation to Europe in March, Judge Horacio Wheelock returned home and self-quarantined for two weeks.

But working from home didn’t keep him from his bench at the Douglas County District Court. In fact, while overseeing his courtroom from a computer at home, Wheelock soon discovered that working in isolation wasn’t that different from being there in person.

Whether it’s an in-person hearing or a hearing conducted over Zoom, “honestly, to me there’s no difference,” Wheelock told The Daily Record.

When his self-imposed quarantine was over and Wheelock showed no signs of illness, he returned to the courthouse. Safety measures put in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, however, precluded the court from fully returning to normal.

“What is strongly encouraged is the use of audio-visual equipment for hearings where people are incarcerated at Douglas County Corrections or Nebraska State Penitentiary,” Wheelock said. “That avoids transporting citizens that are being housed there.”

Wheelock, who began his yearlong term as presiding judge of the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District on July 1, also supports using phone or video conferencing in civil proceedings, though he is quick to point out that each judge decides how to run their courtroom.

“Me, personally, I try to use audio-visual as much as I can, because it’s just very convenient,” Wheelock said. “We have fast forwarded five to 10 years into the future with this pandemic, and I think that this is here to stay – no doubt about it. There’s no reason to go back.”

As presiding judge, Wheelock’s duties include thinking about ways to improve the court experience, not only for judges, but for lawyers and the public as well.

“I’m not here to change things,” Wheelock said. “We have a really nice system in place, and we have excellent judges that are just conscientious, fantastic, smart, and they know what they’re doing.”

That being said, Wheelock’s strategic plan while he is presiding judge is to assist judges with their daily routines and improve the end-user experience for court services. He said the users of court services are its customers.

Wheelock hopes that using remote conferencing will continue, even after the COVID-19 threat has subsided, because it increases access to the court system.

“Now people that are in west Omaha, perhaps, don’t have to travel 30 minutes to come to the courthouse,” Wheelock said. “They can conduct their hearings in this manner. Not that one shoe fits all, but it sure makes it more convenient.”

Teleconferencing isn’t appropriate for every appearance, though. Wheelock sees jury trials, for example, still being conducted in person.

“It’ll be so nice when we can do them all in the courtroom again,” Wheelock said. “The jury can sit in the jury box. That is the cornerstone of our democracy, the cornerstone of our Constitution, and I can’t wait for that to get back to normal.”

If the coronavirus pandemic has a silver lining, though, it’s that other court matters can be handled in a more efficient manner, Wheelock said.

Things run extremely on time. I was pretty punctual before, but this is amazing,” he said. “The level of punctuality as it relates to these types of hearings it’s just second to none.”

The Zoom background image that Wheelock is a photo showing his courtroom from a day he was presiding from home. In his place, on top of his bench, sits a laptop computer, the screen facing out toward the gallery. Beside the laptop, in front of the witness stand, a large flatscreen TV monitor sits on a stand, also facing out so people can see the screen.

“I’ve had people up here on the big screen and people being in-person as well, and I’ve had to kind of use all sorts of different types of equipment to make the hearing happen,” Wheelock said.

Ultimately, the health and safety of the people in the courtroom, and opening access to the courts, are Wheelock’s top goals.

“Everything that we’re doing here is for our citizens,” Wheelock said. “It’s about customer service and it’s about the judges doing everything, and I mean everything that we possibly can, in order to keep the doors open and in order to make sure that everybody has access to justice in an equal manner, whether you’re rich or poor, what race you are, ethnicity, it doesn’t matter, our doors are open. You may be 75 years old, with four or five chronic health conditions, but if you have a cellphone or if you have a computer, you’re gonna have access to these courts.”