Someone who worked at Miami’s criminal courthouse has tested positive for the coronavirus

Someone who worked in Miami-Dade’s criminal court has tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday.

Authorities said that the person worked in the courtroom of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Altfield at the Richard E. Gerstein Building, 1351 NW 12th St., on March 10 and March 11.

The revelation came as Miami-Dade’s courthouse continued teeming with people on Tuesday, even though officials had announced the building was supposed to be closed for all but critical hearings to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

But the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office had filed scores of motions seeking to get people out of jail because of the pandemic. Hearings were consolidated into just a few courtrooms on each floor. Some inmates were brought from the jails but were not brought into courtrooms; instead, they were kept in holding cells away from the public.

Among those in eight courtrooms on Tuesday: assistant public defenders and prosecutors, corrections officers and bailiffs. Defendants and their families were still showing up at the criminal courthouse.

In one small sixth-floor courtroom, hearings were held nonstop from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. One person showed up asking for property to be returned to him — he showed up with his wife and newborn.

“The courtroom was packed with people,” said one attorney who was in the courtroom. “Security should be turning them away.”

Privately, several lawyers have complained about the Miami-Dade court system’s handling of the outbreak, saying the administration didn’t act fast enough to limit the number of people in the building. One lawyer who was not in court on Tuesday but appeared before Judge Altfield last week told the Miami Herald that he is now home, watching his health.

“While I do not have a fever or cough, my chest has felt tight, making deep breaths more difficult,” he said.

Miami-Dade Chief Judge Bertila Soto, in an advisory on Tuesday afternoon, issued an order “canceling all non-emergency” hearings — although it was unclear if that meant the hearings asked for by the Public Defender’s Office seeking to release jailed inmates.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle earlier announced Monday that her office, working with Public Defender Carlos Martinez and judges, will “develop a process to release misdemeanor & nonviolent felons who are in custody but pose no threat to the public.”

But the Public Defender’s Office was also asking that defendants facing more serious charges be released from jail. One of them: Accused Pillowcase Rapist Robert Koehler, who is being held with no bond on an armed sexual battery case. A hearing had been set for Friday, according to the court docket, but it was unclear if it would go forward.

One of Fernández’s Rundle’s top prosecutors late Tuesday acknowledged that the day’s court hearings “did not go as planned” and “many of the calendars were inundated with release motions, many of which were inappropriate.”

“Everyone is frustrated with the result and [Chief Judge Soto] has directed that going forward, the judges will be asking the public defenders to pick their top 20 cases to place on the calendar,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Don Horn wrote in an email obtained by the Herald.

Horn told prosecutors that the court hearings the rest of the week would be “staggered” — to avoid having so many people around each other as the crush of hearings continue.

The overall closure of most of the court hearings will last through at least March 27.

So what types of hearings will continue? According to Judge Soto’s order, they will include hearings for newly arrested people. Defendants appearing for “bond hearings” aren’t in the courthouse anyway — they appear via closed-circuit TV from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Arraignments, which generally happen 21 days after an arrest, will still happen, but only for people who are in custody. Defendants will not be brought to court from the jail. “If there is no written plea, the arraignment hearing will be reset,” Soto wrote on Tuesday.

Emergency hearings will still be held, but hearings for restraining orders will be canceled (people can still file petitions at the clerk’s window). In delinquency court, for juveniles accused of crimes, detention hearings will be handled by phone.

All trials have also been suspended, at least until March 27. That means you don’t have to show up for jury duty.

Shelter hearings — for children who need to be placed with guardians or returned to parents — will also take place as they normally do. Also continuing as normal: hearings for people facing a Baker Act, an involuntary psychological evaluation, or a Marchman Act, involuntary drug or alcohol treatment.

As for the potential exposure in Judge Altfield’s sixth-floor courtroom, officials are asking people who may have been there last week to watch out for fever, coughing and difficulty breathing.

The courts did not identify the profession of the infected person. Lawyers, police officers, clerks, court reporters and state probation officers all regularly appear in Miami-Dade courtrooms.

“If they feel feverish or develop cough or difficulty breathing during the self-observation period, they should take their temperature, self-isolate, limit contact with others, and seek advice by telephone from a healthcare provider or their local health department to determine whether medical evaluation is needed,” the court said in an advisory posted to its website on Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 3:22 PM.