STATE ATTORNEYS OFFICE COVID CRISIS

 The Dade County State Attorneys Office is in Covid19- Delta Variant freefall. 

How many employees are sick?  Like the Florida weather, wait a minute, and it will change. The count is above the number of fingers you have. 

8,9,10- the emails from a State Attorney Human Resources official come flooding in, minute by minute, announcing the positive test of another employee and listing  the courtrooms the employee was at:

"We are announcing the positive result of four employees, who went to courtrooms 4-1 (hugged two PDS), 3-4- (high fived a clerk), 2-3 (kissed a court reporter hello on the cheek). Three employees in the family court building attended a "what delta variant party?" without masks and played Twister. All are now sick."  And on and on the emails come. 

On Monday Herald Super Reporter @DavidOvalle305  tweeted about an SAO email announcing more positive employees and then a minute later updated the tweet with another email from the SAO announcing that another employee is sick. 

We take a moment to pause and reflect on the fact  that the State Attorneys Office has a "human resources division". Back in the day, when an ASA was in trouble they got called into Janet Reno's office. And depending on the nature of the issue, either chief investigator Ray Havens was sitting next to her (BIG TROUBLE), or one of her chief assistants like George Yoss, Lenny Glick, Kathy Rundle, or Shay Blichick.  The ASA got yelled at, and if Chief Havens did not read the ASA his/her rights,  they slunk out  of Reno's office and back to their  desk at a cubicle on the sixth floor and resumed their  duties and took out their  anger by raising all their plea offers to the PDS for the rest of the week. 

Ovalle wrote an article in the Herald here, detailing how covid is ripping through the legal system including a harrowing tale of former REGJB lawyer Todd Michaels-fully vaccinated-  trying a civil case without a mask and getting sick. Very sick.  An anonymous judge was quoted as saying potential jurors not wearing masks, who are coughing, decline a mask when the judge offers them one. The Judge said he/she is powerless to force them to wear a mask or ask if they are vaccinated. 

Not wait just a cotton picking moment. 

A judge can start their calendar at nine or ten, A judge can require male lawyers in the middle of 95 degree weather in August with 5555% humidity to wear a jacket and a tie; a judge can require gentlemen to remove their hats when in the courtroom, a judge can require that everyone stand for goodness sakes when they glide on to the bench, majestically clad in black, but a judge cannot require someone in their courtroom to wear a freaking mask? 

You  have got to be kidding us.