Two bailiffs with the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office who work in the judicial center recently tested positive for COVID-19. As a precaution, Daviess County Family Court staff has been sent home to work remotely for the next 14 days.
“We’ve had a couple of employees that work in the facility test positive here over the last five days or so,” said DCSO Chief Deputy Barry Smith.
Family Court Judge Julie Hawes Gordon said she and Judge John McCarty decided to have their staff work from home for two weeks, and all scheduled hearings will take place virtually through at least Aug. 5.
“One of the deputies who did test positive contacted me and said they were waiting on a test and that one bailiff has tested positive,” Gordon said. “Then they contacted me that they had tested positive. That person was in all of our offices — they were everywhere. That’s just part of their job.”
Other employees working in the Morton J. Holbrook Judicial Center are awaiting test results, including Gordon.
“I’m not symptomatic, but I felt like it was probably the responsible thing for me to go get tested. I plan to stay home until I get the test results back,” Gordon said. “We’re expecting the public and the folks that come before us in court to be responsible and make good decisions, I’d say that’s the least we can do.”
Gordon said she began hearing rumors about various people in different departments that had been testing positive so she decided to look into the situation. As of Tuesday night, she was only aware of the two bailiffs testing positive — thereby discrediting the rumors of other confirmed cases.
Still, she said there was no need for Family Court to take any risks. She also addressed the situation Tuesday afternoon in a Facebook post.
“We have vulnerable populations in Family Court,” she said. “Judge McCarty and I are able to handle things via Skype and we have been. Today I had a full docket and I handled it all virtually. There is no reason, until we know what the extent is of the positive cases in the judicial building, there is no reason my staff or all the other parties — there is no sense in that risk.”
Daviess County Circuit Court Clerk Jennifer Hardesty-Besecker said none of her employees have tested positive.
Smith said the two DCSO employees will not be allowed to return to work until they test negative and are in accordance with safety guidelines. He said DCSO has been working closely with the Green River District Health Department to try to find out which other employees and people within the building are at any risk.
Clay Horton, GRDHD director, said the health department could not comment on specific cases.
Smith said those deemed low-risk have also been given the opportunity to get tested.
“We have offered testing for those that are in a low-risk category just because they’re working in the building,” he said. “They aren’t required to quarantine as long as they’re not symptomatic.”
Smith said everybody is required to wear a mask in the judicial center but acknowledged they might sometimes let their guard down during a break — but he does not know how the employees contracted the virus.
“We’re continuing to take temperatures and ask our employees the required questions a couple times a day just to make sure nobody’s symptomatic — taking all the precautions that we can,” Smith said.
Smith said the risk of anyone in the public contracting the virus from either employee while at the judicial center is low.
“The only public that comes in are those that are coming to and from court that are on the dockets,” he said. “We turn away a lot of people that have some other kind of business from time to time. If they’re not on the docket, they leave. I’m proud of our employees in the building. Day-in and day-out, during this entire COVID-19 pandemic, they are on the front lines checking everyone that enters the building.”
Even those that are on the docket but are symptomatic are not allowed to enter. In the last two days, five people on the docket have been turned away because they either showed symptoms of having the virus or their answers to screening questions indicated they may be at risk.
“We’re turning those people away and not letting them in the building,” Smith said. “We want to stress to the public that if you have a court date to appear and you are symptomatic, please call the courts. Tell them that you have symptoms of COVID and have them give you another court date.”
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