Longtime assistant DA dies of COVID
Russ Broman filed OSHA complaint after getting virus
A longtime assistant district attorney for Allegheny County has died after a weekslong fight with COVID-19, an official at the DA’s office has confirmed.
Russ Broman, 65, died on Tuesday at Allegheny General Hospital, according to DA’s office spokesman Mike Manko. Mr. Broman was in critical condition and on a ventilator for several weeks after contracting the virus in early July.
“Special Assistant District Attorney Russ Broman was a bluecollar, roll-up-your-shirt-sleeves prosecutor who relished working in the service of the residents of Allegheny County and the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the DA’s office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening.
“As with any workplace, the Allegheny County District Attorneys Office is a family, and this day is especially painful for our family,” the post said.
Mr. Broman was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1985 and began working as a prosecutor at the district attorney’s office in March 1986.
“Russ was a great friend and colleague, and he will be dearly missed,” said Kevin McCarthy, bargaining unit president of the United Steelworkers union that represents assistant district attorneys. “We are all going to miss him, most of all his humor.”
Mr. McCarthy praised Mr. Broman’s “brilliant mind” and the work he did on behalf of the people of the county for many years, pointing to his enthusiasm to help young lawyers during a career spanning several different positions at the DA’s office.
“There was no task he could not overtake and master,” Mr.
McCarthy said.
Mr. Broman had filed a complaint in early July with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over how the notification process for COVID-19 cases in the county courthouse was handled.
Several other employees at the courthouse, including Assistant District Attorney Ted Dutkowski, had also tested positive for the virus throughout late June and July.
Shortly after Mr. Broman tested positive, Mr. McCarthy said that the courthouse should either be closed or at least have temperature and symptom-checking stations at the courthouse entrances to ensure employee safety.
All of the additional positive tests, Mr. McCarthy said, would have been avoided if the courthouse had been shut down immediately upon notification that an employee was sick.
“That is a sentiment widely held by the DAs, PDs and the defense bar,” Mr. McCarthy said at the time.
Since then, Allegheny County President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark closed two floors in the courthouse in late July after another employee who worked on those floors tested positive.