Judge Laura Parker hit the ground running at Bexar County's new Felony Impact Court, churning through three trials in the first 10 days of an experiment designed to reduce the jail population.

The county’s jail population was 4,075 in mid-May, “a lot higher than it normally has been,” Judicial Services Director Mike Lozito said. The jail’s average daily population has been about 3,600 inmates, he said, and the maximum it can handle is 4,563.

Lozito attributed the spike to San Antonio’s unusually deadly 2016, when 149 homicides, compared to 94 the year before, marked the highest per-capita homicide rate for the city since 1996. In all, San Antonio saw 10,754 violent crimes — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — in 2016, a 25 percent increase from the year before.

Those realities, officials said, put pressure on the county’s 10 felony district courts. But since there’s no expectation that the higher numbers of defendants will be the new normal, they see the Impact Court as a temporary measure. The county doesn’t expect to need to ask the Legislature for another district court, Lozito said.

“The best thing is for us to get them processed, and Impact Court does that,” Lozito said.

Parker, 52, was ousted from a juvenile court bench in last November’s Democratic election sweep in Bexar County despite the legal community’s high regard for her.

“I enjoyed the time off, but it feels good to be busy,” she said.

By the time Bexar County commissioners approved the program in April, Parker was part of it, included on a Power Point presentation as its coordinator, said Monica Ramos, public information officer for Bexar County.

“Since it is a pilot program and started on such a short timetable, we needed someone to help coordinate it.” Ramos said. “She was available, and has existing relationships with other judges.”

Commissioners committed $227,531 to fund it through the end of September, with a possible extension to be decided during the summertime budget process, Lozito said.

On May 1, the new court’s first day, Parker presided over the trial of a man on twin charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm. She also seated a jury for a murder trial that ended May 3 with a guilty verdict. Parker passed sentence on May 19.

Then on May 5, jury selection began for the murder trial of a man accused in a robbery that turned into a fatal shooting of an Army veteran at a bus stop on the East Side in 2015. That trial ended May 10 with a conviction and 65-year sentence.

“In one week, she closed six, maybe seven cases,” said state District Judge Ron Rangel, who is administrative judge for Bexar County.

In 1999, Parker was appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the newly created 386th District Court, which handles criminal cases for Bexar County juveniles under 17. Under Parker’s leadership, the county’s juvenile diversion programs became nationally known and a model for others, officials said.

Her experience on the bench will help ease the load, Rangel said, adding, “Because she has no docket, she can try these cases faster.”

Impact Court allows jury trials to go on uninterrupted, Parker agreed.

“It’s been like old home week,” Parker said, recalling spending 18 months in the same basement courtroom years ago when she was an assistant district attorney assigned to the family violence unit.

The 20 cases currently assigned to her were farmed out from each of the county’s state district courts, which have hundreds of cases on their dockets and receive an average of 25 cases per week, Rangel said.

The docket calls, pleas and sentencings create backlogs for trials, which might take a case up to two years to reach, Rangel said. The goal is to try 98 percent of all felony cases within a year of the charge being filed, the American Bar Association average.

“Not only are felony cases more complicated, they take longer to try,” he said.

Parker will run the court about 75 percent of the time. Other visiting judges will cycle in as needed, county officials said.

Rangel praised the cooperation between courthouse players in making the program happen — commissioners approved the concept and the money; Sheriff Javier Salazar assigned bailiffs to the court, and the judges identified visiting judges who could preside.

Staff Writer Emilie Eaton contributed to this report.

ezavala@express-news.net

Twitter: @elizabeth2863