COVINGTON — Terror may be putting justice on hold.

        In Northern Kentucky, at least two major cases have been pushed back until next year — with defense attorneys and judges citing the terrorist attacks and U.S. strikes on Afghanistan. Lengthy trials testing the focus of jurors and possible bias against defendants are among the concerns cited.

        One postponement took place as law enforcement officials swarmed around an anthrax scare at the Internal Revenue Service tax-processing center near Kenton County Circuit Judge Steven Jaeger's courtroom on Tuesday.

        The judge delayed what he described as a “major” medical malpractice trial until May.

        In the case, which has been working its way through the courts since 1996, a Villa Hills couple say their son was left permanently handicapped because of what they contend was a faulty diagnosis.

        Judge Jaeger said he couldn't recall a current event previously postponing trials.

        “These are unprecedented times,” he said. “We have to take extraordinary measures sometimes.

        “And we need to be hypervigilant, like the president told us to do.”

        Hamilton County Court Administrator Mike Walton said he is not aware of any trials delayed in Cincinnati. Butler and Warren county court officials could not be reached for comment. But in other cities, trials that might be influenced by jurors' attitudes toward defendants have been postponed.

        Another high-profile case delayed in Northern Kentucky is the trial of two people facing the death penalty in the slaying of Delta Air Lines pilot Stephen Craven.

        In postponing the trial scheduled for Oct. 17, Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe said it would be difficult for members of the jury to focus so soon after the Sept. 11 attacks in a trial that could last six weeks.

        But Judge Summe said she isn't concerned about delays bogging down the legal system. She said work will proceed when people get acclimated.

        “We have not been at war in a very long time,” she said.

        The attorney representing Ronald Pryor, who is charged with murder in connection with the death of Mr. Craven, had other concerns.

        “Since hijackers downed four commercial airliners ... airline pilots are currently looked upon as heroes as well as victims,” said Rebecca Lytle, Mr. Pryor's attorney. “This fact, when coupled with the sense of reprisal currently felt throughout this country for our fallen heroes adds significantly to the argument that Mr. Pryor cannot have a fair trial by an impartial jury at this time.”

        Mr. Pryor's attorney, looking to bolster her argument for a postponement, cited newspaper articles about trials across the country that have been delayed since the attacks.

        Delays include:

        • The Boston trial of Umesh Patel, an Indian immigrant accused of setting a fire in Beverly, Mass., that injured a firefighter. The judge said he could not guarantee a fair trial amid reports of hate crimes around the country.

        • The Atlanta murder trial of the former black militant once known as H. Rap Brown. He is now a Muslim cleric known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. A judge set a new trial date for January, saying anti-Muslim “feelings and prejudices may dissipate with the passage of time.”

        • The Santa Ana, Calif., case of John Ghobrial, an Egyptian butcher accused of molesting and murdering a boy. More than half the prospective jurors were dismissed for prejudice against Middle Easterners.

        • The trial of a fired Hialeah, Fla., police officer accused of laundering drug money. Prosecutors and FBI agents scheduled to testify have been reassigned to the hijack investigations.

        In Louisville, according to Ms. Lytle, a judge postponed the murder trial of a man accused of killing a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy in 1993. Peter Bard could receive the death penalty if convicted.

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