Soares requests a hold on grand jury meetings
Risks for the panels too great amid pandemic, prosecutor tells Cuomo
Albany Citing a surge in COVID -19 cases in his own office, Albany County District Attorney David Soares is asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to suspend the “simply reckless” convening of grand juries.
Soares said five of his staff members have tested positive since Nov. 21. None had tested positive since March. Neither the district attorney nor his chief assistant, David Rossi, were said to be among those infected.
“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, other organizations have experienced similar outbreak,” Soares said.
Soares, who was elected to a fifth term last month, asked the governor and fellow Democrat to reinstate the executive order that Cuomo imposed from March 7 to Oct. 4 to suspend parts of the state’s criminal procedure law that, in normal circumstances, safeguard defendants’ rights to speedy trials. Without an indictment, defendants charged with felonies can only be held for 45 days.
Grand juries meet in secret panels of 23 people to decide whether to bring criminal indictments against people or to clear them. At least 16 members of a grand jury are needed for a quorum. Soares said he expects to be inundated with requests from defense attorneys.
“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.”
Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly told the Times Union she joined Soares in asking the governor to suspend the legal clock.
“We are doing everything in our power to maintain public safety as we navigate this critical phase of the pandemic,” Donnelly said. The district attorney said she is home quarantining because her mother tested positive.
“We are very fortunate to have not had any exposures within the office at this point,” Donnelly said.
Soares sent a letter to acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly, the administrative judge for the 3rd Judicial District, which includes seven counties including Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Columbia, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster.
Connolly, based in Albany, recently succeeded retired Supreme Court Thomas Breslin in the role.
“It is our position that asking Albany County residents to continue to meet as a grand jury is in direct contravention of New York state’s recommendations that people avoid meeting in groups,” Soares told Connolly.
The district attorney said while John Diamond, the county ’s commissioner of jurors, and his staff have excelled at keeping grand jurors as safe as possible, “there is no way for the grand jury to continue to meet in a manner that doesn’t risk exposure” given the recent spike in COVID -19 cases.
“At a time when the state is limiting gatherings statewide to no more than 10 people, it is simply reckless to still require 23 complete strangers to sit together for hours hearing cases,” Soares told Connolly.
Soares’ office, which learned of the positive tests on Friday, did not know whether jurors had been infected.
In his letter to Connolly, the district attorney said the foreperson of a grand jury remarked Friday: “The state recommends not spending time with people outside of your home, yet we are expected to sit in a room for eight hours with 25 people and an additional 20 plus people when factoring in witnesses.”
The juror added: “I sat all day less than six feet from the ADAS. When I raised my concerns, I was told I could go outside for fresh air on breaks. And yet, it was deemed that the judges need not be exposed for a few minutes for the hand up at the end. I truly hope that the state will take the safety of jurors into their consideration moving forward.”
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration, said the court system was “keenly aware” of spiking virus cases throughout the state. He said to respond to that, new jurors have not been brought in this month but are on standby and being held over the equivalent of one grand jury in each county from the November term.
“While they remain impaneled and available for the issuance of subpoenas, most are not hearing in-person cases and we have encouraged district attorneys to hold preliminary hearings for defendants who are in jail awaiting the action of a grand jury,” he said. He said the plan will continue into January when the next court term begins.