Spent Wednesday in District of Columbia court. Long story short, a couple of days after Christmas, a guy from my office and I witnessed a guy breaking into his car. We chased him down and the cops caught him a few minutes later. This is the resultant trial.
Wednesday, 3/1: I received a call on my cell phone from the US Attorney telling me that they were going to subpoena me in this case and all of these details. I assume that it's just someone from work fucking with me, but man, it's a really detailed voicemail. Whatever, I'll believe it when I get the subpoena in the mail.
Friday, 3/3: I get the subpoena. Hmmm, this isn't a joke. The US Attorney tells me to block the entire day. Really? I can't see how this is going to take more than a couple of hours. I figure that we'll be out by noon at the latest.
0730: Driving to the metro station, I see a completely naked woman walking around on Route 1 in Crystal City. It's 33 degrees outside and she doesn't even have socks on (would it have been wierder if she was naked and had socks on?). This is going to be a wierd day.
0800: Get on the Metro near my office in SE Washington DC. I'm going down the escalator and one woman is riding up. No one else is in sight. As we get a little closer, I realize that she is having a full-on argument with herself. No one else around, and she's not on a cell phone. She's yelling at herself. This is just getting wierder and wierder.
0830: Arrive in DC Superior Court and head to the Witness Waiting Room. Get instructions on what to do, what to expect, etc. We are told that if everything goes perfectly, we can expect to leave around 11AM, but these things average until about 2pm. Geez, they weren't kidding about the all day thing.
0900: We're in the courtroom. It's about what I expect. A wood paneled, circular room with the elevated judge's bench, some spectator seating, and a couple of podiums for prosecutors and defense attorneys. It's mic'd strangely, so you can hear EVERYTHING. You hear the attorneys whispering to each other, you hear every paper shuffle--EVERYTHING. It's wierd.
0915: All rise! Court is called to order. I'm strangely nervous/excited/anxious. It's like the People's Court meets A Few Good Men. As it would turn out, it's more like People's Court meets Cops, but you'll see what I mean.
0916: Defense attorney requests a five minute pass to have his client called in from the tank (where they keep the incarcerated people).
0920: The US Marshall in the courtroom gets the woman we have been waiting for and walks her in. She is in the orange jumpsuit and leg irons with a crazy afro. She looks like she is just off the latest shooting of Cops, Florida or the cover model for CrackWhore magazine. I cannot emphasize enough how crazy she looks.
0921: Judge Turner mentions that the defendant looks better than the last time they met. Really? What did she look like last time? Did she still have her second head attached? Holy shit, it's gotta be crazy to be a judge.
0925: Crazy crackwhore is gone, a couple more cases are called and moved for administrative reasons. This is the real nitty-gritty of the legal system. Lawyers unavailable, court re-schedulings, etc. Nothing really interesting.
0935: A guy is called for some sort of a trial/plea. He pleads guilty to assault. He punched a guy in the face at a bar or something and got arrested. When he got arrested, he told the cops that if he got out, he was gonna run and they weren't going to catch him again. His words, "I'm gonna run, you tell the judge that I'm gonna run!". Well, joke's on you. They told the judge, she denied bail and you've been locked up for the last 37 days. Stupidity really has no bounds.
0940: He states that he made a mistake and isn't going to run, enters a guilty plea and is sentenced to time served and probation with a $2,000 bond.
0945: Our case is called. My heart starts racing for some reason. I'm not really involved as anything more than a corrorborating witness, but I'm nervous/existed/anxious again. The defendant doesn't show, and the Marshall believes that he is in the tank, but they somehow can't find him. The judge tells us to show up at noon, when the Marshall says that he will have him up and ready to go.
In DC, the traffic court building is right next to the criminal court building, so I go to fight a couple of traffic tickets. By 11:45, I have beaten $125 in parking tickets. This trip is paying off after all.
1200: We're back in court.
1210: More admin stuff.
1225: Defense attorney talks to the prosecutors (a chick who looks to be in her mid-30's, Amy, and another woman who appears to be in her early 40's. Amy looks like she works a lot, bags under her eyes, but used to be pretty. If she lost 25 pounds and got some sleep, she'd actually be kinda hot. We decide that she has a nice ass, but needs to hit the gym to tighten it up a little bit. But I digress...). The defense attorney is asking about a plea, the prosecutors say that it's off the table. He comes back with something else and is shot down again. It's interesting to watch them play poker/chess with each other--trying to read what the other is thinking, make moves and countermoves. The prosecutors seem to believe that they have a solid case and can win it outright. The defense attorney checks us out and then heads back to talk to his client. We're going to trial!
1245: Trial starts
1250: We are asked to leave the courtroom. The defendant makes a statement, which we are not allowed to hear.
1255: Ben takes the stand and starts to testify on his version of the events. I'm sitting in the equivalent of the green room where I'm not supposed to hear any of the proceedings so that my testimony can be used later if necessary to back up Ben's. However, because of the mics in the courtroom, I hear about 85% of what is going on and what is said.
1320: Ben is done with his testimony and the cross-examination. Break for lunch.
1330: We're not supposed to talk to each other, so we walk out of the courtroom separately and then go to lunch.
1420: Back from lunch and in court. Talk to defense counsel for about 10 minutes about random stuff. He's about 6'0", at least 280-300 lbs, black guy with a shaved head. Interesting guy to talk to.
1455: Wormley is back in court and we're waiting for the judge. When the judge arrives, we are sent out of the courtroom. About 10 minutes later, the prosecutor (not the semi-hot one) comes out and tells us that he has been found guilty and that we can come in for the sentencing portion. During the sentencing, the guy denies all of it. Amazing. Honestly, you should have seen his record. Every time he got out of jail, he got busted for stealing something. The funny thing is that he got busted for this on Dec 28th, and then got busted again in January. The sentence is for 100 days of jail time, to be served at the end of the sentence that he is currently serving for the January bust.
1525: We are out and justice is served!
All in all, it was a very interesting peek into the daily dealings of the criminal justice system. I have a lot of respect for judges in general, but this really confirmed it. I was very impressed with how the judge handled the matters, how sharp she was with all matters of the law (as you would hopefully expect), how she handled the courtroom, the lawyers, all of the crazies, and how she seemed to actually care about what they did. And even with all of the sob stories and whatnot, she doled out firm sentences and rulings using her judgment.
I was also very impressed with the US attorneys. They handled probably about 8-9 cases just in that one day. For each one, they were up to speed on most of the relevant facts of the case and were able to make informed recommendations on each. They handled our case pretty well, they had already done their homework and asked us a few pointed questions for clarification. They knew what the defense attorney was going to try to do and were prepared for it. I know that they have a lot of support staff keeping the jackets and case papers together for them, but it took some sophistication to keep it all together and running smoothly in front of the judge and defense attorney.
All in all, it took about a day for what was a pretty clear-cut case. I was glad that I did it, but really hope that I never have to do it again.
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