What may have been the first in-person jury selection to take place since the coronavirus shuttered courthouses across the nation began Tuesday in Ashland County, Ohio, but ended abruptly after the defendant experienced difficulty breathing and had to be helped out of the courtroom.

Now the defendant and the defense attorney are both under quarantine, and the trial has been pushed back until mid-May.

The incident, which was livestreamed on the court's feed, has provided something of a cautionary tale for courts and attorneys as local justice systems across the country begin to figure out how to relax restrictions and reopen courthouses as the coronavirus pandemic drags on into its second month.

The case the jurors were called in to deliberate over involved criminal charges against Seth Whited. According to court records, he was charged with a third-degree felony of endangering children, as well as unauthorized use of a computer, cable or communication. The charges stemmed from an incident where he allegedly injured his girlfriend's child, and another incident where he hacked into his then ex-girlfriend's work email address.

In the video that was livestreamed, Whited and his attorneys could be seen in the Ashland County Court of Common Pleas courthouse, wearing masks and gloves as jury selection commenced in his case.

Although the jurors were out of sight of the camera, several witnesses said jurors had been seated in staggered rows in the gallery, with two spaces between each person to maintain Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's social distancing mandates. According to witnesses, given the limited number of jurors who could be in the courtroom at once, voir dire had to be done twice, with two separate groups of jurors.

It was during voir dire of the second portion of the jury when Whited began having trouble breathing at the defense table. Although Whited initially waived off concerns, after about a minute, he again began breathing loudly and then appeared to nearly faint. The proceedings were halted. Whited was quickly walked out of the courtroom, leaning on his counsel, attorney Adam Charles Stone of Bucyrus, Ohio.

According to Stone, Whited was immediately taken to Samaritan Hospital where he was isolated and tested for COVID-19. Whited tested negative for coronavirus, Stone said, but he was ordered to stay under quarantine for six days to monitor his symptoms. Stone said there are also plans to test Whited again soon for fears that his initial test might have been a false negative.

As a result, Stone himself has also been ordered to quarantine for 14 days.

Stone had been seeking to delay Whited's trial over coronavirus concerns since April 7, when he filed a continuance with Judge Ronald Forsthoefel, who is overseeing the case. After Forsthoefel denied those efforts, Stone filed a request with the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to postpone the trial. However, on April 27, the justices dismissed the petition, leaving it up to the discretion of the judge.

The incident Tuesday, however, did not immediately lead to a delay in Whited's case.

According to Stone, both he and Whited were ordered back to the courthouse Wednesday, despite their quarantine orders.

"My client was out in his car until I was forced to bring him into the courthouse," Stone said.

According to Stone, Whited was in the courthouse for about 20 minutes during the proceedings Wednesday morning, before Forsthoefel agreed to grant a continuance in the case. Although the judge invited the two back into the court to dismiss the jury, Stone said he and Whited left.

"We didn't think it was appropriate, or safe," he said.

Forsthoefel dismissed the prospective jurors Wednesday morning, saying both sides had concerns.

"In light of some of the events that took place yesterday that were a little out of the ordinary, as well as some other developments that occurred last night part of our discussion was the fact that both the state and the defense don't believe that we're in a position at this point with everything that happened to give either side a fair trial," he said in the livestream. "It's been an unusual experience for all of us."

The case is now set to restart May 12.

The rural county, which is in the north-central part of the state, has seen only seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Monday. However, Stone said that allowing the case to proceed while the virus continues to spread raises a host of due process problems that need to be addressed.

To begin with, he said, it would be impractical for him to communicate with his client at counsel's table out of earshot with a mask on his face while maintaining a six-foot separation from his client. Further, he said, it is impossible for him to read the jury's reaction, since most of them wore masks as well.

"We have to be able to do those things if we're going to do our job and do it right," Stone said. "My client's mother has beaten cancer twice. She has a battered immune system. She would love to be in court, but she can't."

Some jurors also expressed fears about having to serve, Stone added, noting that a few even contacted a local attorney to potentially fight the issue.

Forsthoefel, however, said he thought that, for an initial run, things "worked very well," and should serve as a good learning opportunity for courts and judges who are also looking to get back to proceedings with in-person juries.

"We're all in the learning process," he said. "We're a small county with limited resources, and if we can pretty much pull it off—without the unusual [event from Tuesday]—I think most courts will be able to pull it off pretty well."

Forsthoefel said that, along with using the gallery for the jury, temperature scans and efforts to sanitize individual juror seats allowed the case to proceed within safety protocols. Jurors who expressed strong concerns about their health, he said, were also dismissed.

Regarding communicating at defense table, the judge said the defendant could have sought some kind of accommodation, such as allowing text messaging between the two, but they never sought that out.

"We all have limitations that we have to deal with every day, and if that's a concern with the defendant, the defendant can accommodate for that," he said.

Forsthoefel declined to talk about why Whited was called to the courthouse Wednesday despite his quarantine status, saying he could not discuss specifics of the case, although he noted that Whited's quarantine was not for the full customary 14 days and that his temperature was below 98 degrees Wednesday morning.

Forsthoefel also declined to comment about why he chose to have the case proceed as the virus spread. However, a court filing to the Supreme Court gives some indication, with one issue being that the case had already been continued three prior times, in August, November and January.

"The resolution of a single felony case with a child victim, with precautions taken that go so far as to rearrange the entire courtroom to allow for ample spacing, does not demand the same solution as a domestic relations court in a much larger county attempting to conduct business as usual with respect to all final divorce hearings," counsel for the judge said in the filing from Friday. "The timely administration of justice in criminal cases is of sufficient importance that the governor and the director of health have specifically allowed jury trials to proceed in their 'stay-at-home' order."

The incident Tuesday, however, and the court's willingness to push the case to trial during the outbreak, has caused concern in the defense bar.

Cleveland attorney Ian Friedman of Friedman & Nemecek started monitoring the case Tuesday after Stone sought his help, but has since gotten involved in the case as part of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Lawyer's Assistance Strike Force, which helps attorneys who might be at risk of contempt or disqualification.

Friedman said that before commencing trials, courts need to consider a host of issues, including the fact that investigations will be significantly hamstrung, counsel is limited in how it can prepare their clients, jurors may not be forthcoming about their own health issues, masks hinder communication with clients and jurors, and attorneys won't be able to approach witnesses or pass documents without potentially breaking social distancing protocols.

"The Ashland County Court of Common Pleas case made clear that a court cannot take the simplistic view of asking whether it should just start trials or not," he said, calling Whited's case "premature." "This and other courts must recognize the needs of the lawyers before commencing trials. It is too late once trial has started."

Court staff are also learning from the case.

Tina Carpenter, Ashland County's court administrator and jury commissioner, said it appeared that about 65% of potential jurors seemed concerned, while about 20% seemed debilitated by fear of the virus. She said the county had called extra people, but will likely call more for the retrial.

Despite the concerns, she said that, after the case was continued, jurors unanimously reported they felt safe with the level of precautions that had been taken.

For court staff, she said, one of the important lessons was making sure the team, which she noted has worked together for decades, maintained a calming presence.

"We let the folks watching us know, we're all human. We're here to do a job, and we're people just like you are. Don't be concerned. We're in a serious situation, but going to make the best of it," she said.