log 1

May 13, 2002

My first day, I must admit, was nothing like I expected. I was a little nervous going into it, because at that point, I had no official on-site coordinator. I walked up to the court window, which, from the outside, is rather intimidating. After a few minutes, Nancy came out into the lobby to meet me, and then led the way back into her office. It was around 8:30am, and I guess court was already in session. She told me that normally I should’ve gone through the metal detectors at the entrance to the court room, but led me through the “authorized personnel only” door instead. To watch the proceedings, I sat in the jury box, oddly enough. I was a little surprised that I was supposed to sit there, and even more surprised when I saw the people across the court room: the people in jail who had come in to see the judge were wearing shackles. I guess I just never thought of having your ankles chained in a municipal court.

Nancy pointed to the bailiff who apparently is replacing Ron G, mentioning his name quickly, and told me that he’d meet with me as soon as the court took a break. (I later learned his name was Jeff.) She left, and eventually the court took a short break. The entire “All rise” part of this endeavor took me by surprise, I think. Who knew they really said that? Judge T motioned for me to follow outside the courtroom as he left. There, back in the hallway, I met the Judge and Jeff before going back into the courtroom. The arraignments were finished by 11 o’clock or so.

I was invited back to the Judge’s chambers to talk to Judge T. He explained his policies on DUI’s, DUS’s (which I learned stands for driving under suspension), and how he agrees with the defendant about a payment plan for fines. I was also able to see lawyers come talk to the Judge about their clients in his chambers. Contrary to what I previously believed, the Judge already knows most of the facts regarding a case before he walks into a courtroom. Between the defense attorney, the city prosecutor, and the judge, deals are negotiated and made before the arraignments.

After a long break for lunch, I went back to court to hear the aforementioned pre-trials and more arraignments. Unfortunately, the arraignments were all for the exact same violations I saw in the morning, so it was not quite as exciting. I also saw two bench trials before my day was over. This basically means that it is a normal trial, but the judge is the only person to decide; there is no jury for a bench trial. The first was rather boring, but the second was quite intriguing. In fact, the Judge decided to give himself a week for deliberation and even asked my opinion on the matter. “Erin, let’s go back to my chambers and deliberate.” I won’t really go into the situation in detail. Let’s just say I don’t even know the answer. I find myself seeing more of the defendant’s side, which shows what 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 too, 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.

My first day has definitely been successful. Hopefully the rest of my time here will be just as interesting.

8:30am – 11:00am 1:45pm – 5:30pm 6.25 hours