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Law360 (March 18, 2020, 1:02 PM EDT) -- The D.C. Superior Court is scaling down its operations after a deputy U.S. marshal who worked on adult and juvenile arraignments tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the court said Wednesday.
The court will continue to have adult arraignments and presentments as well as hearings in juvenile, neglect and abuse cases and various other "emergency matters." But the court will otherwise reduce the number of courtrooms in operation, per instructions from D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Morin.
The announcement came hours after an official for the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to Law360 that a deputy U.S. marshal who had contact with prisoners in the cell block and the courtroom had tested positive for COVID-19, the virus sweeping across the globe. The marshal has been staying home from work this week in self-quarantine.
"We're confirming that we do have a deputy marshal who's tested positive," said Robert Brandt, chief deputy U.S. marshal for D.C. Superior Court. "We have made notifications to all of our partner agencies and in the process of identifying any other individuals who he may have come into contact."
Brandt said the court has "taken substantial sanitization measures" in areas the marshal was in, but would not say whether the court has sent home any other individuals who may have come in contact with him. No other deputy marshals have exhibited any symptoms, Brandt added.
A spokeswoman for D.C. Superior Court said in a statement that court administrators learned of the positive test results from the U.S. Marshals Service late Tuesday and "immediately notified those court staff who may have had contact with the deputy marshal and had both courtrooms and the holding cells that adjoin them thoroughly cleaned and disinfected." The statement added that "the Court is having the entire cellblock thoroughly cleaned."
D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby said the D.C. Courts Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, which she chairs, "just issued an order invoking emergency authority under the D.C. Code to give both chief judges the authority to take needed steps during this public health crisis to extend deadlines and make other necessary changes to court operations and court rules to address the coronavirus risk."
"The D.C. courts are endeavoring to meet emergency needs of the community, while minimizing exposure risk to the greatest extent possible," she added.
--Editing by Marygrace Murphy and Emily Kokoll.
Update: This story has been updated with more information from the D.C. Superior Court.
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