Court officers helped people trapped in cars by trees after the tornado.
SPRINGFIELD – Beginning Thursday, about 50 prosecutors, state police and other district attorney staffers were on the move, but it wasn’t a new crime-fighting effort.
The landlord for the tornado-damaged office building at 55 State St. across from the Hall of Justice decided it wasn’t possible to get the building in tolerable condition quickly.
From Monday until Thursday, members of Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni’s Appeals Division, community safety and outreach division, finance division, along with the State Police officers assigned to Mastroianni’s office, toiled in over-90 degree heat in a suffocating third floor sauna .
Pieces of the ceiling in the rooms occupied by the state police unit hung down. Some windows were boarded. In some offices there were files set out to dry.
On Thursday, the move from 55 State St. began, to temporary headquarters on the 18th floor of Tower Square.
The District Attorney and his staff who have offices at 50 State St. in the Hall of Justice will remain in their offices there.
The Hall of Justice fared much better than the 55 State St. building.
As Mastroianni ducked behind a door jamb in his office in the Hall of Justice, the large glass window blew in, sending glass all over. Glass windows blew in the adjoining conference room and in another court office on the fourth floor.
“When I heard it coming in I wasn’t going to make it out the door so I just went behind a door jamb. I knew something was going to blow,” he said.
And when the glass settled, then came the news that Assistant District Attorney Jill O’Connor had been seriously injured as she walked to her car on Union Street.
Mastroianni said O’Connor is recovering now. District attorney’s office staff are honoring her family’s wishes to let her rest, he said.
“Let’s not flood her with people and overwhelm her and stress her when what she really needs is rest. We check on her progress every day,” he said.
She is foremost in the thoughts of court staff, prosecutors and defense lawyers, if the talk in the courthouse is any measure.
There were two homes lost by District Attorney staff members, and others had automobile and property damage. A fund has been set up for people in the office affected by the tornado.
Michele Dunn, an employee of the Juvenile Court Clerk’s Office, suffered deep wounds to both legs and her arm and back when walking to her car. Tina Walker, a victim/witness advocate in the district attorney’s Domestic Violence Intervention Unit, wrapped her jacket around one of Dunn’s legs and her sweater around the other as tourniquets to reduce the bleeding.
Kenneth M. O’Connor Jr., chief court officer at the Hall of Justice, said he was in his courthouse office when he saw debris swirling around outside.
He got on the building’s paging system and, “I started yelling, ‘Do not leave the building, there’s a tornado outside.’
“Some of my court officers and associate court officers were already outside. I went out and joined them and immediately began to assist where we could,” O’Connor said.
Some court officers tried to keep traffic flowing.
Some went over to help people get tree limbs and trees off their cars so they could get out of the cars.
Court staff, a judge and some members of the public were put in the basement cafeteria until there were no more weather warnings about 7 p.m., he said.
“I tell you the court officers and associate court officers did an excellent job,” O’Connor said. “They went far beyond their call of duty for sure. I’m very proud of them. “
Crews of probationers from Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties were on hand the morning after the storm to help clear around the courthouse, said David Skocik, community service statewide supervisor. That included 253 community service participants putting in 1,012 hours to help in cleanup in Springfield and Monson.
The probationers had been referred either by district and superior courts or as sanctioned by the Office of Community Corrections.