A top judge in Brooklyn on Thursday dismissed what would have been one of the city’s first in-person jury trials of 2021, citing one attorney’s “refusal to proceed with jury selection while wearing a face mask.”

Howard Greenwald, a trial attorney with Chopra & Nocerino, told Justice Lawrence Knipel, administrative judge for civil matters in Kings County, that he had begun to participate in proceedings wearing a face shield but was told he had to wear a mask, according to a transcript of the proceedings.