3 Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office employees test positive for COVID-19
Three employees in the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office had tested positive for COVID-19 this week, according to County Prosecutor Jon Tunheim.
The office is working with county Public Health, he said, and a limited staff is in the office, which is closed to the public.
Two employees started to experience symptoms last weekend and were tested Monday as a precaution, Tunheim told The Olympian. They stayed home from work while their tests were processed, he said. One employee’s positive test came back Tuesday, and another came back Wednesday.
The third employee didn’t have symptoms but got tested and the results came back positive Thursday, according to Tunheim. He declined to share specific information regarding the employees, out of concern about sharing private health information, but said the three had been working in the same general area of the office.
At least one of them was in court last week, he said, adding that courtroom protocol since March has required everyone to wear masks and stay socially distant.
In response to a phone call from The Olympian, a spokesperson for Thurston County Public Health and Social Services wrote in an email that the department wouldn’t issue a statement on the situation. The spokesperson did not answer a question regarding whether this situation is considered an outbreak.
An outbreak in a non-healthcare congregate setting is defined by the state Department of Health as two or more positive cases when at least two cases have symptom-onset dates within two weeks of each other and “plausible epidemiological evidence of transmission in a shared location other than a household is observed.”
The Prosecutor’s Office had been operating on a rotating schedule, Tunheim said. Some people came into the office, which is on the second floor of the building that houses Superior Court, while others stayed home; the goal was to keep people distanced from one another, Tunheim said. He did not know whether the three employees were working on the same rotation.
Since March, Tunheim said the office has required people to wear masks at all times in common areas and when talking to anyone else, and to stay as socially distanced as possible within the office.
“I think this could’ve been much worse had we not already put into place all the measures that we had,” he said.
This week, staffing is at a minimum with almost everyone working from home, according to Tunheim. Common areas and the work areas used by people who tested positive have been cleaned and sanitized, he said.
The office is closed to the public, though he said a limited number of employees are there to process files and answer the phone.
The Superior Court is “graciously” expanding the number of hearings conducted virtually, via Zoom, Tunheim said, and he plans to have lawyers appear by Zoom as much as possible.
A mistrial was declared for a trial in its third day Wednesday, court records show. Tunheim said the deputy prosecutor on the case told the court about the positive results in his office. The deputy prosecutor didn’t have a positive result, he said, but the judge ultimately decided not to proceed with the trial.
Justin Gray, an attorney who contracts with Thurston County Public Defense, is representing the defendant in that case. He told The Olympian that he and his client got word that someone in the Prosecutor’s Office had tested positive mid-day Tuesday, after jury selection, and that the judge was aware as well.
It took everyone by surprise, Gray said, and the trial was ultimately paused. Records show court recessed just before 1:45 p.m. that day.
Court reconvened Wednesday morning, and records show Judge Carol Murphy declared a mistrial about 9 a.m. Both Tunheim and Gray said they thought the judge made the decision not to go forward out of “an abundance of caution.”
Trial was set instead to begin again Monday, Gray confirmed, but that’s subject to change.
Tunheim said he thinks there may be delays in some other cases, if a deputy prosecutor is quarantined based on close contact, but that will depend on the contact tracing process.
“I anticipate we’ll still have sufficient staff that it won’t compromise our ability to prosecute anything,” he said.
Thurston County Public Health and Social Services will go through its contact-tracing protocol, Tunheim said, and his office will do what it can to help them and follow whatever recommendations they have.
As for testing, he said that’s another area where the office will follow the health department’s directives but that some staff have gotten tested for their “own peace of mind.”
All three of the people so far confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus are “doing well,” Tunheim said. He characterized the two symptomatic employees as experiencing “minor” symptoms.
Tunheim said he’s been communicating with staff and had informed all other elected county officials Wednesday.
“Frankly, I wanted to encourage them and everybody else that we need to continue to be vigilant,” he said.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 7:56 AM.
.jpg)