Huge power outage closes Detroit courts and many other buildings
A high-profile murder trial was abruptly put on hold Tuesday as the lights in Detroit’s Frank Murphy Hall of Justice flickered and went out.
It was just one of 100 buildings affected by a massive cable failure that shut down power to all Detroit Public Lighting customers around 10:30 a.m., reports the Detroit Free Press.
Although lights had begun to come back on by midafternoon and power is expected to be restored to most users by the evening, employees of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office were sent home for the day.
Because the power was out, elevators weren’t working, and those exiting the courthouse had to use jammed stairwells, the Detroit News reported. At least one group got stuck on an elevator on the sixth floor.
Fortunately for insurance defense attorney Aaron Kleid, who had just concluded a settlement conference at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the lights began flickering as he was headed to an elevator there rather than on it. He exited the building by walking down 19 flights of stairs.
“It was exceptionally orderly,” he told the Free Press. His car was parked at a garage that still had power, so he was able to leave, but his progress was slowed because traffic lights were out.
At the Hall of Justice, the lights-out today was the second time proceedings in Robert Bashara’s murder-for-hire case have been interrupted by a power outage, the Detroit News says. Another occurred during a preliminary examination over the summer.
Bashara is accused of arranging for a handyman to kill his wife.
The Huffington Post and USA Today also have stories about the outage.
