Queens residents head to jury duty as civil trials resume for first time since March

Queens residents head to jury duty as civil trials resume for first time since March. Eagle photo by Rachel Vick

By Rachel Vick

Despite the threat of COVID-19, a few dozen Queens residents responded to their jury summonses Monday, visiting Queens Borough Hall to await directions as civil jury trials resume for the first time since a mid-March shutdown. 

The prospective jurors lined up six feet apart in two queues outside the Kew Gardens building at around 9 a.m. Queens Borough Hall is also an early voting site and the lines caused some confusion for those heading to the polls. 

As they approached the entrance, a court officer asked them each four questions to ensure nobody had recently traveled or felt sick.

Hillside resident Christina Florestan said she felt a sense of civic duty and didn’t feel troubled by the potential for encountering the coronavirus in an indoor space filled with people from all over the borough. She already runs that risk as a hospital worker, she said.

“As a citizen it’s your right [to serve],” said Hillside resident Christina Florestan. “I work at a hospital so I could be exposed at any time.” 

Florestan and every other prospective juror wore facial coverings, with some also dressed in gloves or hair coverings.

Until mid-March, hundreds of Queens residents would report to the Queens Civil Court building in response to their summonses each day. There they would wait to be assigned for jury selection for a trial at the Supreme Court building across the street, or permitted to go home.

But the Civil Court building is already too crowded to host dozens of prospective jurors, said Queens County Clerk Audrey Pheffer. There are fewer people at Queens Borough Hall and more space to practice social distancing, she said.

The space is not totally free of COVID-19, however. Earlier this month, a Queens assistant district attorney working at the intake office in borough hall tested positive for the illness. Various court officers working in the adjacent Queens Criminal Court building have also tested positive for the illness over the past several months.

Staff from the clerk’s office and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services worked to institute public health precautions, Pheffer said. One inside the building, the prospective jurors were broken into groups and placed in different rooms with seats spaced apart by at least six feet. 

Some were assigned to jury selection for two trials Tuesday, one at the courthouse in Long Island and another at the courthouse on Sutphin Boulevard. Both courtrooms have been outfitted with plexiglass around the bench and attorneys’ tables and jurors will sit spaced out in the gallery.

One prospective juror, boxer Harrison Barba, said sitting inside Borough Hall and going through the selection process doesn’t bother him. Barba said he gets tested for COVID-19 regularly and has remained healthy.

“I’m kind of bummed that I’ve got to come do it, but there’s not much to do about it,” he said.

Another juror said she was not going to “get anxious until I know that there’s something to be anxious about.”

Civil jury trials began last week in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island, and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said jury selection and trials outside the city have gone well.

“We are confident in our ability to safely and efficiently resume in-person jury trials,” DiFiore said during a weekly address to court personnel and attorneys.

Many lawyers and court staff in Queens say the risk of COVID-19 is still too real to invite people back into Borough Hall for jury summonses, but their concerns have been overruled by the Office of Court Administration.
“I’m glad the courts are open and the jury system is operating again,” County Clerk Audrey Pheffer told the Eagle. “It’s a right under the Constitution to be judged by your peers.”