More than 70 New York City judges went to a Long Island resort last week for an annual three-night getaway. In the days that followed, 20 people tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York court, confirmed on Wednesday that the judges had tested positive. He said that, to his knowledge, none of the judges were seriously ill, and those with symptoms had not been reported to work.
People without symptoms will be allowed to return to work, he said, provided they wear masks, as required in common areas of the courtroom. He did not have information on how many asymptomatic judges have returned to the bench, but said they have all been vaccinated according to protocol.
“Any effect this has on cases or activities is negligible or non-existent,” he said. “You’re talking about less than 20 of the hundreds of judges in New York City.”
Retreat at Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa and participate in some of the activities of the criminal court judges’ association, whose members include appointed criminal court judges and those elevated to jurisdiction of the State Supreme Court.
One of those activities, according to a person familiar with the event, was a karaoke session, in which some of the judges were particularly enthusiastic.
(Singing, with rapid breathing and droplets of saliva, has been documented as a potential source of virus transmissionwith outbreaks of some choirs reported in the early months of the pandemic.)
New York’s courts have been slow to recover from the pandemic. In the summer of 2020, the number of pending cases in the city’s criminal courts increased to 39,200, and two years later, the backlog is far from resolved, even as gun-related cases are resolved quickly. It has delayed trials and other proceedings and left many people stranded in prison.
In one example of the pandemic’s impact on the work backlog, said Steve J. Martin, a federal supervisor who oversees operations at the Rikers Island prison complex. in a letter filed in federal court on Tuesday that 28 percent of the population at Rikers had been incarcerated for more than a year and that nearly 300 had been incarcerated for more than three years. He begged the Office of Court Administration, along with other criminal justice stakeholders, to work to reduce the backlog.
In state courts, masks are required. Compliance with that rule, however, is sporadic, and judges, court officers and other court personnel can often be seen with masks on their chin, around the neck, or absent altogether.
Last month, the state court system announced that it planned to fire more than 100 non-judicial employees who failed to comply with its vaccine delegation policy. Four judges also chose not to comply, two in New York City and two outside of it. Mr Chalfen said at the time, any judge who refused to comply with their duties would be barred from entering the court premises and forced to work from home.
