Mediaboss Marketing

Brad Petrishen|Telegram & Gazette

WORCESTER Court officials have asked police to probe a racist video Zoom bomb that interrupted Central District Court on Friday during a virtual hearing for people charged during aBlack Lives Matter protest June 1 in the city.

Lawyers representing nine people accused of failing to disperse after the protest got out of hand were arguing motions on Zoom around noon, when the online disruptionoccurred.

The N-word could be heard repeatedly on the broadcast. One person wrote Heeil Hitleer (sic) on the chat, while another laughed. A pornographic video was also cast on the screen briefly.

Court officials ended the broadcast soon after, and resumed without issue about 30 minutes later.

Clerk Magistrate Brian M. DAndrea said this is the first time this has happened in Central District Court, while Jennifer Donahue, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Trial Court, said she has not been made aware of this happening before in any other court.

The District Court has referred this matter to the Trial Court Security Department, which in turn referred it to the state police for further investigation, Donahue wrote in an email.

DAndrea said court staff Friday were, for the time being, disabling the ability of users on the call to cast their screen onto the Zoom or to unmute themselves to speak.

There were about 70 people on the Zoomincluding a judge who was physically on the bench in the courtroom.

The court has generally been using default Zoom settings, which allow people to chime in themselves when their case is called. The alternative is unmuting people manually, which can be time-consuming.

DAndrea said he has tried to keep the hearings as open as possible to foster transparency during the pandemic.

Not all courts have allowed so much virtual access during the pandemic, he said, adding that he doesnt plan to curtail access in Worcester.

We need to strike a balance, he said. What we dont want is a small group of folks intent on disturbing the process to force us to change.

Known as Zoom bombing, the practice of interrupting Zoom proceedings with racist, anti-Semitic and pornographic images has increased as people use video chats ubiquitously during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hector E. Pineiro, a lawyer who represents nine defendants arrested at the Black Lives Matter protest in Main South, said Friday he does not believe the interruption was random.

Of course, he responded when asked whether he thought it was likely the work of a person or persons who wanted to mock the protesters or the protest.

See more here:
State asks police to probe racist screed broadcast during virtual Worcester court hearing for Black Lives Matter protesters - Worcester Telegram