senior project: day 1

(Yup… -yanks up pants very officially and with a sigh- this is where we get some really creative titles goin for ya.)

Today was my first official day on senior project. Thank God it turned out to be halfway decent, and thank God the people I’m working with are really nice. The first person I met was Nancy, who has basically become my new project coordinator. You see, Ron, my original coordinator and bailiff, retired. Without letting me know. And yes it’s partially my fault. However, that is completely not the point. Nancy has been very receptive, and I spent the entire day shadowing Judge Trebetts, who was also very cooperative in explaining things and making me feel at home.

I went in at 8:30am, and left by 11:15am. Apparently the new judge is so organized that on this day (which is apparently not indicative of a normal day) he was completely done then until a 1:45pm pre-trial. I drove over to the high school to see about getting a copy of my original proposal, but couldn’t find Mrs. Clements. I went home and had a baked potato (courtesy of Wendy’s), then rushed off to the church to give Kathy my YAC money and form. Thank God she hadn’t sent them in yet… in fact, it was also quite convenient to be on senior project and be able to get to the church in the first place! While I was there, Kathy told me of several people to whom I should introduce myself that apparently go to our church. Later I found out that most of the people I’m working with go to our church, not just the few Kathy mentioned! It was great… one of the bailiffs especially kind of took me under his wing – I felt like I was right at home at a church event. Anyway, I drove home, and picked up my prom dress from the neighbor. Eventually I drove back over to the high school (is it just me, or did I spend entirely too much time in school today when I clearly was supposed to be done with the place entirely as of Thursday?), found my proposal, copied it, found Mr. V, told him what was going on with my coordinator (or lack thereof), and drove home.

I was back at court by 1:40pm, and heard pre-trials and more arraignments. It was kind of the same old thing in the court room itself… same violations… same sentences… same negotiations with different lawyers. I finally got to hear two bench trials, which basically means the prosecutor, officer, defense lawyer, and defendant present a case in front of the judge with no jury. The one was rather boring, but the other was quite intriguing. In fact, the Judge decided to give himself a week for deliberation and even asked my opinion on the matter. I won’t really go into the situation in detail right now… but perhaps later. Let’s just say I don’t even know the answer. I find myself seeing more of the defendant’s side, which shows how much being in a courtroom was doing to my personality. Normally (and indeed, at first) I was totally on the officer’s side – why would I side with a person with a warrant out no matter what the circumstances? In fact, I totally understand the officer’s position to, but the fact remains that you cannot, according to the law and justice, do what he did. Or can you? It’s a really fine line. I didn’t leave until 5:30pm.