By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — It's back to business as usual in the Manhattan criminal court system.
Doors are finally reopening at 100 Centre Street, the 17-floor Manhattan criminal courthouse, after a March 2 electrical fire that displaced thousands of lawyers, courthouse personnel and litigants.
The building received clearance over the weekend to open Monday after nearly a week of patching fire damages and testing air quality, electricity and other functions.
Some criminal court matters were relocated to 111 Centre Street, a courthouse across the street, but the majority of hearings were adjourned because inmates could not be produced from Rikers Island in large quantities to 111 Centre, which is mostly occupied by civil court.
The only appearances not postponed were trials and pressing matters like arraignments.
Throughout the week, court clerks carted case files to and from the buildings, while judges tried to make do in temporary quarters.
Wires from temporary construction lighting in the basement caused the fire, the FDNY said.
The power failure shut down communication and computer systems throughout the building, and a caused a temporary technology outage at 125 White Street, the Manhattan Detention Center next door to 100 Centre.
Visitors and attorneys could not see inmates there for an unknown period of time after the fire because of damages from the fire, a Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed.
The fire also delayed rapper Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter's sentencing and likely one-year trip to jail.
Carter is now on the schedule for Monday along with East Harlem Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, who has been awaiting trial on drunk driving charges for two years.
