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Jurors arriving at the Luzerne County Courthouse were advised their trial was cancelled Tuesday and instructed to report Wednesday. Ed Lewis | Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — Electrical service has been restored to nearly 1,000 PPL customers in Wilkes-Barre after a power outage Tuesday morning that postponed a homicide trial at the Luzerne County Courthouse.
According to PPL Outage Center as of 9:40 a.m., about 60 PPL customers are without electrical service along the first block of North Franklin Street.
Earlier Tuesday, a power outage affected approximately 1,000 customers from West Market Street to East Chestnut Street, impacting the courthouse, Central Court and the county correctional facility.
Power has been restored to the county buildings but computers remained inoperable in many offices.
The homicide trial of Dazon Wykie Turner, 22, before Judge David W. Lupas, was canceled Tuesday as there was no guarantee power would continue to stay on for the day. The threat of another power outage would had impacted television monitors used to present video recordings, the microphone at the witness stand and the court reporter machine.
Jurors were met with a hand-written sign posted on the courthouse entrance door instructing them to report at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.
President Judge Micheal T. Vough said most criminal proceedings are postponed today as it was estimated earlier this morning power would not be restored until the afternoon. About 10 minutes after Vough was given the estimated time of restoration of electrical service, the president judge said power returned to the courthouse.
Court proceedings involving protection-from abuse petitions and anyone seeking a restraining order are continuing, Vough said.
Proceedings inside the Bernard C. Brominski Building are cancelled for today as the outage affected the building’s entrance doors.