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Power Outage Delays Court Dates In Clearwater

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 16, 2008

TAMPA - A switch feeding electricity to the Criminal Justice Center in Clearwater failed today, causing a power outage that lasted about six hours and interrupting court proceedings.

Cases that were on the docket today will be rescheduled, 6th Judicial Circuit spokesman Ron Stuart said.

The power was out from 9:22 a.m. to about 3 p.m., Pinellas County sheriff's spokeswoman Cecelia Barreda said.

Without air conditioning, the heat in the criminal justice center on 14250 49th St. N. became unbearable, Stuart said.

"We had to send everybody home," he said. "It frustrated a lot of people."

People who should have been in court today should speak to their attorneys to find out when their cases will be rescheduled or call the Pinellas County Clerk of the Court at (727) 464-3341, Stuart said.

The criminal justice center will re-open during its regular hours Tuesday, he said.

The outage also affected Pinellas County Jail, but the back-up generators kicked in, Barreda said. No major problems were reported at the jail, she said.

Progress Energy serves both the courthouse and the jail.

Two weather-related outages also affected about 300 Progress Energy customers in Pinellas, spokeswoman Wendy Horne said. Power went out in the St. Petersburg area around 1 p.m. and again at 2 p.m., but the outages lasted an hour or less, she said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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