The August jury term in Lincoln County District Court has been canceled, impacting several area cases that were set for next month.
Pottawatomie County District Judge John Canavan, chief justice of the district, confirmed the cancelation.
Judge Canavan indicated the next term is scheduled for October, unless a special term is set for September.
The August term has been canceled apparently due to various reasons. The court side of the Lincoln County Courthouse was shut down due to persons who work in that area coming down with COVID-19 and did not reopen until at least Tuesday of this week.
A trial date had been set for the Prague parents of twins they are accused of abusing who were born last November.
The case of a Meeker father charged in the near starvation of his 15-year old son two years ago was also set for trial in August.
In the Prague parents case, Joseph Carl Corum, 20, faces two charges of child abuse. His wife, Mina Starr Arnold, 19, is charged with two counts of enabling child abuse. They were formally charged in Lincoln County District in January after they were arrested earlier that month.
The formal charges against the two were filed Jan. 8. An additional charge of assault and battery was filed against Corum on Feb. 3.
According to court records, the pair was scheduled for a felony disposition docket on Aug. 4 and a jury trial had been set for each of them on Aug. 17.
Court records showed he was scheduled for trial on the assault and battery charge on the same date as the child abuse charges.
An affidavit filed in the case states Corum and Arnold are identified as the biological parents of the twins.
The babies were born Nov. 16, 2019, at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Shawnee, the affidavit states.
An investigator was called by a Department of Human Services supervisor to give him information about two babies who reportedly had been abused by their parents, the affidavit states.
It further states the babies initially were taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Shawnee. Corum and Arnold had left the hospital prior to DHS taking custody of the children who were five weeks old at the time.
The investigator was informed soon after the children were transported to Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. He went to Children’s Hospital, the information states, and met with a DHS supervisor and a nurse practitioner.
In the near starvation case, Jimmy L. Jones, Sr., charged with child neglect, was scheduled for trial on Monday, Aug. 17, court records showed. He was also set for the Jury call docket on Friday, Aug. 14.
Jones, 34 at the time, originally faced felony charges of child abuse and child neglect. Later, the child abuse case was dropped.
In July of 2018, JJ was transported to and remained in OU Medical Center from July until sometime in October of that year. A 4-year-old sibling taken into protective custody was checked out at the hospital the day JJ was discovered.
She also was located inside the residence and released from the hospital the same day. She was in the custody of Department of Human Services, authorities had indicated.
Jones, the youth’s dad, Amy Adkins, identified as the teen’s stepmom, Jonathan Luke Plank, and Tyler Joe Adkins, the two brothers, were all charged in July of 2018. All but Jimmy Jones were arrested at the residence at 101529 S. 3470 Road, Meeker at the time investigators discovered the youth.
He turned himself in on the following Monday.
Amy Jones, Adkins and Plank each faced a single felony charge of child neglect. All four were residing at 101529 S. 3470 Road, Meeker at the time investigators discovered the youth.
The case against Plank was later thrown out.