Main Courthouse In Western Mass. Closes For 3rd-Straight Day Over Mold Spread

A western Massachusetts courthouse will be closed for a third-straight day Friday because of a mold problem.

New England Public Media reported the Roderick Ireland Courthouse in Springfield was shut down Wednesday after the district attorney ordered his staff to evacuate because of the mold.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni told NEPM he was pulling more than 40 of his staffers out of the courthouse, because the mold has been spreading throughout the building.

"On books, on flags on walls, there's visible, significant mold," Gulluni said at a press conference Wednesday. "There continues to be mold in what appears to be the vents of the many offices within the courthouse ... it's gotten worse."

The Massachusetts Trial Court said in a statement an environmental testing firm and a mold abatement company were brought in to fix the mold problem.

Hampden Superior Court clerk Laura Gentile said court business should not be significantly affected as long as the shut down is short. She said that's largely in part because of how court operations shifted to adopt safety precautions in the pandemic.

"We have figured out how to do things remotely," Gentile said. "We've accomplished quite a bit remotely. We do pleas remotely, where I know other counties aren't doing anything like that, and that's made a huge impact on the number of cases we're able to move."

Satellite courtroom space being leased at the Eastfield Mall in Sprinfield is also currently closed because of a separate mold problem.

With reporting from the WBUR Newsroom and New England Public Media's Adam Frenier