WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — In recent weeks, judicial officials in Vermont and New Hampshire have started announcing steps to reopen courts, but many say the return to normal will not be easy.

For attorneys, victims and defendants who saw their cases languish amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has brought frustration, and the future brings uncertainty.

“Every person was put in the same position of this unknowing,” said Grafton County Attorney Marcie Hornick.

“People are in a very poor position,” said Jay Buckey, a public defender in Sullivan County, adding that over the past year defendants held without bail have remained in jail indefinitely waiting for COVID-19 to end. “It’s dispiriting.”

Attorneys and others involved in the judicial system reflected recently on the past year without jury trials as the Twin States started taking steps over the last month to reopen to the public.

The Vermont Judiciary announced last month that in-person hearings in court will be allowed starting June 14. In New Hampshire, all courts and clerk offices reopened to the public starting May 18, though many hearings are still being held by telephone or video.

For many prosecutors in the Upper Valley, the last year without jury trials or in-person hearings has ultimately been a major disruption.

“It’s upended the usual flow of court cases,” said Windsor County State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough. “There are a lot of disadvantages to not seeing people on a more regular basis.”

Hornick said in her office, attorneys were always on their toes because they didn’t know when the pandemic would end.

“We’re always in that preparation mode and always making sure our witnesses are prepared” in the event trials started up again, she said.

But the effects of the shutdown and the uncertainty reached beyond prosecutors’ offices. In several cases defendants were let out of pre-trial detention in anticipation of a lengthy court shutdown, meaning that some victims of violent crimes found themselves waiting out the pandemic and the court closures while their alleged assailants were also in the community.

“The concern that has become most paramount has become these poor victims,” Hornick said. “A lot of these victims have had to stick it out in uncomfortable situations to get their day in court.”

But even for those who didn’t find themselves in potentially dangerous situations, the yearlong shutdown has been frustrating and stifling.

“The biggest struggle is they don’t know when they’re going to have progress or closure,” said Kelly Doyle, a victim’s advocate in Orange County. For some victims, especially those who were ready to go to trial when the pandemic hit, the pandemic been “a huge disruption,” she said.

“There was a lot of anger at first. They thought, ‘This was supposed to happen,’ ” Doyle said. “They had mentally prepared for it. … They think, ‘Why can’t there be justice now? Why do I continue to suffer?’ ”

Many cases in both states have stalled over the past year as victims, defendants and attorneys wait for trial. In New Hampshire, Gage Young, a Lebanon man accused of shooting a visiting college student in Hanover in November 2018, was expected to go to trial in Grafton County before the pandemic, but that date was pushed back. Grafton man Joseph Brown, accused of a 2019 road rage shooting, parted with his attorney after the case dragged on without a trial amid the pandemic. In Vermont, the case of Frank Sanville, accused of killing his estranged wife in Royalton in March 2018, still has not gone to trial.

The quiet desperation that comes with waiting for trials to begin is something defendants and defense attorneys know all too well.

Buckey, who’s worked with defendants held on pre-trial detention over the last year said that in many cases defendants who were held without bail often took a plea deal. The alternative would be waiting in jail for trials to resume with no end in sight.

“If you’re charged with something, you’re held indefinitely, so of course you want to take a deal,” he said. “You’re not going to stick around in jail.”

The pandemic has also made it difficult for defense attorneys to meet with their clients, either for in-person discussions or during hearings. Since most court proceedings over the last year were held remotely, many defense attorneys worked from their offices while defendants appeared at hearings from jail.

“Having a hearing that’s important for your life and your future and not being able to sit there with your lawyer? It makes a huge difference,” Buckey said.

For Buckey and other defense attorneys, the last year has also pulled back the curtain on what they consider failings in the legal system. Buckey pointed to a push by many attorneys early in the pandemic to release defendants who were at risk of catching COVID-19 in jail.

“It begs the question, who did we have in jail (before the pandemic)?” Buckey said.

Following the pandemic, he hopes courts take a look at whether each defendant really needs to be incarcerated ahead of their trial.

“We lock up too many people for things they shouldn’t be. … We do it because we have the infrastructure for it and people have accepted it, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said.

Draxxion Talandar, a Windsor County defendant who has been held since December 2019 on sex assault and domestic violence charges involving two women he met on a dating app, also said this past year has opened his eyes to problems with the judicial system.

Sitting behind the concrete wall of the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Vt., where he’s been held for almost a year and a half awaiting trial, Talandar folded his arms and shook his head in frustration.

“It’s infuriating to be told you’re accused of a crime and thrown in jail, and then told to shut up and sit down,” Talandar said in an interview last month. Talandar, who has pleaded not guilty to six felony charges, said he’s watched other defendants take plea deals to get out of jail. He refuses to entertain the idea, saying he deserves his day in court.

“I have a right to a speedy trial,” he said, calling the ongoing delay “a continuous stab by the justice system.”

But as he waits in jail, Talandar called the experience of being incarcerated a series of “horrors,” especially as he’s locked up with many violent offenders.

“There are days when I want to scream, but it’s not going to do me any good,” he said.

As attorneys look to the future, one worry sits on everyone’s mind: backlog. A year without trials and in-person hearings will likely result in everyone vying for a day in court once buildings are reopened, attorneys say.

During a meeting of the New Hampshire Committee on the Judiciary and the Media last month, Superior Court Judge Amy Ignatius estimated that due to the backlog of cases, the courts are running about nine months behind. She said as courts reopen, older cases and those where a defendant is incarcerated will be given priority.

“The floodgates are opening,” Buckey said. “Instead of very few in-person hearings, there’s going to be a ton.”

Goodenough, who did not have an estimate on the number of backlogged cases Friday, said he thinks there might be some benefits from courts and attorneys getting used to remote hearings, since it could cut down on some of the backlog. But still, he said, he’s worried about what the future holds.

“Our office has been working hard with defense counsel to reduce backlog where we can,” Goodenough said. “But especially in cases that are bound for jury trials, there are limits on how much we can do.”

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.