Latest COVID case in Queens DA's Office fuels concerns ahead of jury trial restart
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The Queens County Criminal Court building. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By David Brand
The latest COVID-19 case in the Queens District Attorney’s Office is raising concerns among prosecutors, defense attorneys and court staff who say they fear the illness spreading with criminal jury trials set to resume in Queens next week.
The COVID-positive individual, an intern, sat in a Queens Criminal courtroom for about an hour on Oct. 23 to observe a hearing in a domestic violence case, court staff said. The intern notified the Queens DA’s Office about her positive test Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration said.
Despite the positive test, several of the prosecutors, clerks and court officers who were working in the courtroom, Part AP6, were back at work Wednesday, staff said.
One Queens prosecutor who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the DA’s Office said that DA Melinda Katz and other administrators have not done enough to protect staffers from the spread of COVID-19 in their workplace. Katz ordered most staff members to return to the courthouse and other offices earlier this month.
“The onus is on the employees to social distance and they are not providing PPE any longer,” the prosecutor said. “It’s terribly risky. “
Another prosecutor who asked to remain anonymous said the safety issues are most evident inside the cramped criminal court intake offices and other spaces where multiple employees share a common space.
The Queens DA’s Office has not yet responded to requests for comment. After an employee tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, Chief of Staff Camille Chin-Kee-Fatt sent an email to staff members informing that “the employee and other staff who were exposed to the employee are quarantining.”
“In addition, the Tracing program was told and all areas will be cleaned,” she added, before urging staff who feel sick to stay home and contact 311 if they need medical guidance.
Others who may have been exposed are also taking precautions after learning about the positive COVID test Tuesday.
Five lawyers, including a supervisor, from the public defender organization Queens Defenders decided to self-quarantine, said Queens Defenders Executive Director Lori Zeno. Each of them sat in the courtroom during hearings at the same time as the intern.
“I just lost five lawyers for the next 14 days. Why they let an intern go into a courtroom to observe something — it’s reckless and it’s ridiculous,” Zeno said.
She said she received an email from the Queens DA’s Office about the positive test, but has not heard from the Office of Court Administration. The lack of communication from OCA has only fueled her opposition to the gradual resumption of in-person proceedings, particularly in a courthouse that was until last week located in Queens’ orange COVID warning zone, she said.
She said OCA must do more to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside courthouses, especially when jurors return.
“I have had it,” she said. “They do nothing. All they keep doing is ordering people to go to court.”
Criminal jury trials are set to resume in Queens next week, which means hundreds of prospective jurors will be summoned to the jury intake room inside the adjacent Queens Borough Hall. On Monday, about 200 Queens residents were summoned to jury duty for the first civil trials since March.
Grand jury pools have been sitting in Borough Hall since August, with prospective jurors visiting the courtrooms in the adjacent criminal court building for hearings. The Queens DA’s Office also has offices in Borough Hall and a Queens prosecutor working in the intake bureau there tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. Queens Patch first reported on the Queens prosecutor’s positive COVID case.
Defendants transported from Rikers Island to the courthouse also locked in holding rooms where city correction officers often neglect to wear masks, Zeno said.
She pointed to a report commissioned by her organization and other public defender groups that found that entering a courthouse “poses an unacceptably high-risk” of transmitting COVID-19 “due to the number of people who congregate in close proximity when forming lines and the lack of dedicated, sufficiently ventilated.”
In July, public defender groups sued OCA to stop in-person proceedings. A federal judge dismissed their lawsuit.
OCA spokesperson Lucian Chalfen said the Queens DA’s Office notified the agency about the intern’s positive test Tuesday evening. Court officers administer health screenings and temperature checks to all courthouse visitors.
“She had a mask on and was socially distanced in the courtroom,” Chalfen said. OCA has posted information about the positive test on its website.
Additional reporting by Rachel Vick.
