Friday February 28th

            I went to the city court again on Friday. This time I took the bus to the court, instead of getting a ride. It took a little bit longer but wasn’t too bad. This hearing was about another DWI. The defense lawyer for this case was not a public defender. I think I like the outside lawyers better for the defense. They tend to argue more. The police witness this time had retired last year. He came in not uniform. He said he had been working with the police force for 20ish years. I’m not sure if he was exaggerating but he said he had done thousands of DWI arrests. The judge was this case was he same I saw on my first day, I like him. He’s friendly and sarcastic, though I don’t know his name. There was a bit of a debacle with the defense lawyer, he wanted to play a video but did not bring a projector. He seemed to think the court had one, I’m not sure why they don’t.  

            One thing I’ve noticed with all the hearings and trials so far is that they always involve a police officer arrested the defendant or was involved. I’m not sure if this is always the case, some officers have mentioned that they have completed hundreds if not thousands of arrests. That would be a lot of hearings to attend! Either way these must be major part of a police officer’s career. 

Wednesday February 26th

On Wednesday I went to the City court. The most exciting thing that happened that day was the hearing. I heard the judge mention that they do hearings almost every day at 2. This is good, I enjoy the hearings, more than the other events.  While I was waiting for the hearing to start, a lawyer I recognized from the County court trial walked in. I remember her as the defense attorney. I guess the public defenders are shuffled through different courts. From what I heard from her talking to another lawyer, she ended up losing the case. She did not expect to either.

After a short wait, the hearing started. The first and only witness was a police officer. The prosecuting attorney basically walked him through what happened. The officer was watching a McDonald’s parking lot, which was known for drug activity. He saw a women enter a man’s car. They turned towards each other and exchanged something, then they both left. The officer followed the man and found crack cocaine in his pants. The man also completed an incorrect turn out of the parking lot as he did not turn on his blinkers.

The defense attorney talked about why he didn’t think the traffic stop had been legal. I guess police need a probable cause to pull someone over. One thing that I noticed is that with all the defense lawyers so far, they each have some elaborate hand movement when they are questioning the witness. The first lawyer like the sort of wheel his hands and fold them over his chest with his chin resting on this right hand. This lawyer put his left hand behind his back, sort of like parade rest.

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h375/67Shelbygal/paraderest-1.png

He gestured with his right hand.

February 21, 2014

On Friday of February break I went to the Albany County Court. I prefer the location of this court. It is a 5 minute from my mom’s work, so I can walk there after I’m done. Aside from that the actual building looks nicer than the city court. I assume this is due to the county being more important than city court. The guard told me that courtroom 2 was active so I went there. Turns out that drug court was in that room. People filtered into the room until some people in suits came in. There were after 50 people in courtroom when it began. The actual drug court lasted about 10 minutes. The lawyers called up some people to be awarded for 12 month, 6 month, 3 month and 1 month badges. I’m guessing that the same group stayed together for the whole year because a lot of people seemed to know each other. Like you mentioned, the usual judge wasn’t there. The lawyers talked for a little bit about the importance of getting a job and an education. The lawyers then dismissed everyone. I talked to the guard again, and he mentioned that there was a trial going on upstairs so I went to go check that out.

When I entered the room, the lights were off and a video was playing. On the screen some body was being interrogated. He was backed up in a corner and two police officers were questioning him. The video played for about an hour. The cops were trying to get the man to admit to the crime. I had a little trouble figuring out what the crime was but from what I could make out, someone had attempted to steal an old ladies purse and she had fought him off. Witnesses had stopped the man but he had run off. They had also given a description of the man to the police. I noticed some interrogation tactics during the video which I found interesting. The officers were acting as if they knew the man had committed the crime and just needed him to admit to it. They told the man that the witnesses had given the police multiple, accurate that fit him. For the first 40 minutes or so, the man argued a lot and denied everything, whereas towards the end of the video the police officer got onto some longer talks and the man started talking less. Sometimes the video was interrupted by a blue box that cut out the video. The judge later said that those were parts taken out of the video because they were not relevant to the case. After the video there was a 10 minute break.

When the lights came on from the video, some police hand cuffed someone and led him out of the room. I recognized him as the man from the video. When the break ended the prosecuting lawyers put a police officer on the witness stand. He had responded to the call. I don’t think he was in charge of the investigation but he was responsible for collecting video footage from various cameras. One thing I noticed was how the lawyer tried to make to seem that the officer was very knowledgeable when it came to cameras. She asked him numerous questions asking how long he had been working with different computer and camera systems. The lawyer ran the officer through his entire process of collecting footage from different cameras as well as his procedure for safeguarding the footage. The defense lawyer also asked the officer some questions. She asked him if was in charge of the camera system for all the camera systems that were mentioned. I knew what she was trying to do, but it seemed kind of weak. The lawyers then played the video. Most of was weird angles and nothing was happening. A few times the officer stopped the video and pointed out the old lady and the man following her. I didn’t see the end of the video, but some people I recognized from the jury passed me on the way out so I don’t think it went too much longer. One thing I found odd was that there were 14 people on the jury. I don’t know if it’s just my impressions from Twelve Angry Men, but I thought the jury only had 12 members.

I really enjoyed the watching trial. I found it very interesting to watch a real trial. I don’t think there are trials at the county court all the time, but hopefully I will get to see more.

February Break

Alright, this week I started on the hours for the internship. I had to change to schedule a little bit, but for the most part it remained the same. On Thursday I went to the  Albany City Court, and on Friday I went the Albany County Court. I think this is always the case, but I saw different things at each court.

Albany Count Court, 2/20/14

           I had been to this court once before but it was closed because of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. I wasn't really sure what to expect. The building looks a like a fortress and isn't the best of neighborhoods but I manged to find it well enough. The Police at the door let me in, I was surprised that they seemed indifferent to the fact that I was there just to observe. I had almost expected them to not let me in or something like that. I asked the Officer which courtrooms were active and he directed me to Courtroom 3. 

          When I entered the room, the first thing I noticed was how bright it was. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all white, and there were lots of large industrial lights. I sat down in one of the aisles of wooden benches and started watching the proceedings. It wasn't what I expected in that there wasn't one trial going on, lots of people were being called up and sentenced to various punishments. They were usually fines or community serivce. I watched this for about 2 hours. Some of the people were led in through a side door. They had yellow jumpsuits and were often hand cuffed. On the back the jumpsuits read "ACCF" which I assumed stood for Albany City Correctional Facility. One of the things I noticed was how almost casual the proceedings were. The judge laughed with some of the people bring tried and most of the people in the room, including the bailiffs in the room, didn't seem like they were paying attention. I'm guessing they had been going for a while before I got there.

         After the lunch break I got to watch an appeal. One of the attorneys let me sit in the front which is usually reserved for lawyers. I'm not sure how big a privilege this is, but It was nice to get a better view. I watched it for about 3 hours, I don't think it went much longer. The case about a SUNY cop that pulled over a pick-up truck because it was parked in the road. Most of the appeal was interviewing the cop that did the arrest. I thought it seemed pretty clear cut, but the defense lawyer kept talking about how most of what the cop said came from his notes and not his actual memory. I'm not sure why that matters but that was his only defense. The appeal was mostly pretty interesting, it got a little boring when the cop was talking about all the sobriety tests he did.

       Overall I found the experience to be pretty interesting. I thought it was neat to see the laws being enforced in the area near where I live. I expect it to become less exciting in the future, but for now I think I can do a good chunk of hours there.