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SEp 10 <br />1984 <br />BOOK <br />58 FACE 206 <br />interest from the Commission was to move <br />the County <br />Court to <br />a new location,`possibly right across the street from the <br />administration facility; then the space intended for the <br />fourth courtroom could be used for expansion of the State's <br />Attorney and Public Defender's offices and Circuit Court <br />could use the County Court space. The other option was to <br />take County Court out to the Criminal Justice complex. <br />Commissioner Bird wished to know, if we did go ahead <br />and renovate for the fourth courtroom at the Annex, whether <br />that would suffice for the needs of Circuit Court for the <br />next 5 - 10 years. <br />Elton Schwarz, Public Defender, commented that Martin <br />County is fairly comparable to Indian River County in regard <br />to courtrooms; they have had four courtrooms in Martin <br />County for several years now and still have situations where <br />no courtrooms are available. These courtrooms do serve both <br />County and Circuit Courts; however, Mr. Schwarz believed <br />that Indian River County will need two large circuit <br />courtrooms for jury trials, possibly in this year. <br />States Attorney Robert Stone stated that the two small <br />circuit courtrooms are fine for civil hearings or uncon- <br />tested matters, but otherwise, they are totally inadequate. <br />In a trial where you have any media coverage whatsoever, <br />there is nowhere near enough room; the State's Attorney and <br />the Public Defender have to sit almost on top of each other; <br />and you do not have the dignity that you should have in a <br />courtroom. <br />Administrator Wright did not believe it often happens <br />that there are two jury trials at one time, but States <br />Attorney Stone noted that not too far in the future, we will <br />have another circuit judge assigned. <br />Administrator Wright explained that what we are <br />proposing is to build two county courtrooms, roughly the <br />VAI <br />2 <br />I <br />