Albany County DA aide dies after getting COVID
Holt, 59, longtime Soares assistant, 1 of 5 staffers to contract virus
Albany A longtime trusted legal aide to Albany County District Attorney David Soares — one of five members of his staff to recently contract COVID -19 — has died.
Jeanenne Holt, 59, of Albany, the top administrative assistant to Soares for the last 10 years, died Friday, a spokeswoman for the district attorney said.
“Offices are comprised of bricks, walls and furniture. It’s the people who provide the warmth and the light,” Soares said in a statement. “Our office is a lot less bright and a lot less warm with the passing of our Jeanenne. We are simply devastated.”
The district attorney expressed condolences to the family of Holt, adding, “…We will always be grateful to the Holt Family for allowing us to experience her love.”
Holt, who had an adult son and daughter, was working from home, the office said.
Holt served not as only as Soares’ legal secretary but was the administrative liaison to the office’s Clean Slate Youth Diversion Program. It allows nonviolent felony defendants between 16 and 24 to accept accountability for their criminal wrongdoing before a panel of community members, receive services to stay on the straight path and, if eligible, have their convictions expunged.
On Dec. 16, the Times Union reported that Soares’ office revealed five members of his office had tested positive for COVID -19 since Nov. 21. It prompted Soares to ask Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reinstate an executive order to suspend parts of the state’s criminal procedure law that, under normal circumstances, safeguard defendants’ rights to speedy trials. Cuomo imposed a suspension from March 7 to Oct. 4, a period that coincided with the explosive early-year growth and then eventual ebb of the virus.
“While it is not our role to report on COVID -19 events involving staff in other agencies who work in the courthouses across the county,” Soares said at the time, “other organizations have experienced similar outbreak.”
Soares’ office confirmed that one of the other staffers who contracted COVID -19 was an assistant district attorney who appeared before a grand jury on Dec. 4. The prosecutor tested positive for COVID -19 the next
week, which led to the cancellation of the next grand jury session a week later.
Soares’ office was unaware of any grand jurors testing positive.
Grand juries meet secretly in groups of 23 to decide whether to bring criminal indictments or clear people of charges. At least 16 grand jurors are needed for a quorum.
“Without this order, members of the public are required to meet weekly for hours in courthouses across the state in groups of 23 in order to sit as sworn grand jurors,” Soares said in a news release. “This is occurring in Albany County and every other county at a time when COVID -19 cases are surging.”
Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney has confirmed at least one member of his staff contracted the virus. Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly previously joined Soares in asking the governor to suspend the law. She said she needed to quarantine because her mother tested positive.