Queens juror tests positive for COVID-19 after 3-week long trial
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Five people, including a juror, have tested positive for COVID-19 after spending time in the Queens Supreme Court building on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By David Brand
A Queens juror has tested positive for COVID-19 after serving on a nearly three-week long civil trial that ended March 19, the Eagle has learned.
The juror, a woman from Jamaica, is the fifth person to test positive for the illness after spending time in the Queens Supreme Court, Civil Term building on Sutphin Boulevard, according to an email to court staff obtained by the Eagle. At least four court employees, including a judge presiding in the court’s matrimonial part, have also contracted COVID-19.
The juror served from Feb. 27 until March 18 — a day before the trial for a decade-old personal injury lawsuit ended. The juror had called out on the final day of trial because she was sick, according to court officials.
The state’s Chief Administrative Judge, Lawrence Marks, announced that ongoing criminal and civil trials would continue to their conclusion in a memo to Unified Court System personnel on March 15.
The juror reported to the court that she tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, said Office of Court Administration Lucian Chalfen.
The chief clerk and the commissioner of jurors had begun “notifying court staff, the rest of the jury and the parties involved,” Chalfen said.
The Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which operates the courthouses in New York City, were instructed to clean the courtroom and the jury room, he added.
The juror is at least the fifth person to test positive for COVID-19 after spending time in the Queens Supreme Court building. A judge, a court officer, a court attorney in the Queens County Clerk’s Office and a senior court clerk have all tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email from court officials to court personnel obtained by the Eagle.
“Please be advised that 4 employees of Queens Supreme Civil Term have tested positive for Coronavirus. The Office of Court Administration and Public Safety have been notified,” the email said.
The email identifies the four people who have tested positive, but the Eagle is withholding their names to preserve their health privacy.
At least one other Queens Supreme Court judge was tested for COVID-19, according to OCA.
Business had continued more or less as usual in the Queens courthouses until March 13, with scores of jurors visiting the Civil Court building next to the Supreme Courthouse to respond to their jury summonses. While some prospective jurors dismissed concerns about the coronavirus and COVID-19, other said they were afraid of being exposed to the virus during interviews with the Eagle earlier this month.
“Every time somebody is coughing in there, I get a little scared,” Whitestone resident Evangelos Daviotis told the Eagle during lunch break March 10. “I’m trying to stay as far away from people as possible.”
