Broward County Under A New Juvenile Court System Due To Coronavirus
Broward judges who oversee juvenile court cases have discharged justice to their young defendants under exceptional circumstances: No one makes their first appearance before a judge in person anymore. Not adult defendants. Not children. The halls of justice are no longer open to the public. Coronavirus closed them.
Loved ones no longer crowd the wooden pews of the courtrooms, offering support to defendants and waiting to hear their friends’ and relatives’ fate.
But the justice system has kept on churning.
Juvenile justice hearings still happen these days, only via Zoom. Defendants make their case for home detention through muffling, loud cracks and breaks in the conversation. Sometimes public defenders roll their eyes or change their backgrounds.
On Friday, after weeks of heated email exchanges between the state Department of Juvenile Justice and the Broward Public Defender’s Office, DJJ administrators acknowledged an employee at the Fort Lauderdale detention center had been carrying the lethal virus.
“This is only a trespass case,” Assistant Public Defender Kelsey Moldof said, while lobbying for her client’s release. “Based on the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that the child can’t even be held in the Broward Detention Center as a result of someone testing positive there,” she added, the girl deserved another chance to await her fate in the safety of her parents’ home.
Usan arranged for the girl — the Miami Herald is not naming her because she is a minor — to be fitted with a GPS ankle-monitor while awaiting trial or a guilty plea. She had turned herself in on the trespass charges, which worked in her favor.
“But you need to understand that I don’t care what kind of viruses are out there or anything else that goes on, [if] you fail to comply with this order to the letter, you’ll be spending 21 days in secure detention,” said judge said.
Juvenile justice will continue in Fort Lauderdale. If your son or daughter has been accused of a crime contact juvenile lawyer Guy Seligman.