Court goes all virtual
COVID surge stirs B’klyn move
Brooklyn Supreme Court’s criminal section suspended all in-person appearances starting Monday, after numerous people who work in the building tested positive for coronavirus, the court’s top judge told the Daily News.
The courthouse on Jay St., where criminal trials are held, had been open throughout the pandemic, and an in-person trial took place there in early November after a courtroom was retrofitted with plexiglass for social distancing.
But rising cases in the city and state, along with numerous positive COVID-19 tests for individuals in the building has forced the court to go back to operating entirely virtually.
“We have also had three or four positives of people who work here although it doesn’t seem they caught it in the courthouse,” said Matthew D’Emic, the administrative judge of Brooklyn Supreme Court. “But it still has a ripple effect, e.g. notifying people who had contact, possible quarantine and testing issues. Now we have to see if we need to cut back further. So [it’s] really a day-to-day decision.”
D’Emic said the court will keep an eye on the infection rate in the city to determine whether to reopen.
Since the beginning of November, seven people who work inside of the building at 320 Jay St. have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a running tally kept by the Office of Court Administration.
In the past five days alone, a court employee in the building and a member of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office both tested positive for the disease.
The temporary shutdown means all criminal hearings will be conducted virtually, with defendants, lawyers, judges and court reporters hearing cases and discussing motions via remote video.
Trials citywide were paused in mid-November after a surge in cases at courthouses. But certain in-person hearings continued, such as when a Queens judge overturned a man’s murder conviction. The courtroom held about 20 people, including District Attorney Melinda Katz.