Courtroom Observation Paper

On Thursday, February 2, 2017 I observed the Court of Common Pleas in Athens, Ohio for an hour and a half. Overseen by Judge Pat Lang in “Courtroom B.” I arrived to the courthouse around 8:55 a.m. I entered the building from the right side, underneath the stairs. To my immediate right, there was an officer and a metal detector I had to walk through before coming any further. I put the loose things I was carrying through the x-ray conveyor belt and collected them on the other side. I asked the officer where Courtroom B was and he kindly directed me to the 3rd floor. I took the elevator to the third floor and when the doors opened I walked out and to the left. There was one other person on the floor at the time and sitting by the doors of courtroom B. It was very quiet in the building, I walked through the

I observed court operations at the Plantation Key Government Center in Tavernier, Florida twice: on October 7th and November 4th. I observed Chief Circuit Judge Carlos Garcia in courtroom A. The courthouse is located in the 16th Judicial Circuit of Florida and it’s a state trial court with general jurisdiction. The first visit was cut short, in part because it was a lighter criminal day than planned, but also I was flabbergasted by the lack of professionalism that was present in this courtroom. I’m not sure if it’s a “court in Paradise” problem, or something that is observed at other courtrooms, however, I’m disappointed in what I saw. Lack of professionalism was evident during both visits from the actors and their actions in the courtroom.

However, since Finley and I both work at OPD and had our uniforms on, they just let us pass. After walking in I was a little confused because I had never been inside the courthouse and the building was pretty big with a ton of rooms that had proceedings going on. It was a little

At eight in the morning on March 18th, my classmate Hallie and I showed up at the Administration building to go see a criminal court proceeding. The trail didn’t start until 8:30 am but we both wanted to get their early to ensure that we got through security and

I decided to attend a night traffic court session at the Ventura Courthouse. The cases ranged from seat belt violations to reckless driving. Most of the defendants appeared before the court to request more time to pay the fines associated with the tickets. I was surprised to see that very few of the people in the courthouse were pleading not guilty. Only one person showed up to defend a case with legal help from an attorney of some sort.

I learned that this happened because the witness testifying, David Fates, was dressed in prison clothes. State v. Hartwell declares that being in prison clothes immediately takes away that persons credibility and the prosecutor can use that against the witness. Now that we know the all the details about the case we can get into and better understand the details that took place during the short 2 hour period I was present in the courtroom. The entire time I was in the courtroom David Fate was at the witness stand being questioned by the prosecutor as Perry silently sat with his defendant. The prosecutor was going into extreme detail with questions to get every detail from what happened the day of February 22, 2009. She had photographic evidence and a projector at hand while she had Fate draw and label the pictures with his initials to point out certain scenarios and evidence found in the photographs. The responses that were generated from the questions being asked by the prosecutor revealed this story told by Fate. He was driving around in a stolen white mitsubishi with his cousin Tariq. They arrived at a travel to see what time they closed while Tariq was driving smoking cigarettes the whole time and Fate was in the passenger seat. After they left the travel agency they stopped at Burger King and got a large whopper with a Hersheys pie, Fate kept it on his

Per the summons and complaint, plaintiff claims excessive force and false arrest. Plaintiff claims that defendant PO Norman Ortega forcibly stopped, searched, and arrested him. Plaintiff states that PO Ortega did not recover any drugs from plaintiff’s person. Criminal charges were, later, dismissed against plaintiff.

The first thing that we had to do at the juvenile detention center was to go through the metal detector and have our belongings scanned. The securities did not confiscate our cellphones, which was surprising to me because cellphones are always banned in the courtroom. After getting our name badges/passes, we walked into a courtroom. The courtroom was a lot smaller than I thought. There were only one row of seating; therefore, approximately only 10 individuals can sit in to listen to the cases. When the judge came into the courtroom, everyone stand up as a gesture of obedience to the state’s orders. After the judge sat down, the lawyers, the parties, and the witnesses went up to the judge and introduced who they are. The witnesses gave a testimony

On Friday, April, 4, 2014, I observed the Vanderburgh County Superior Court to observe different family law cases. The cases I heard involved contempt of court for failing to pay child support, failure to appear for a court appointed drug test, birth certificate affidavit, request for contest hearing time, and an issue of paternity case. Magistrate Judge Sheila M. Corcoran was presiding over the family court hearings. When entering the courthouse, I was greeted by security and advised to remove any cell phones, and/or, any other items that would trigger a metal detector. After this, I proceeded straight to look for the family courtroom. After roaming around mindlessly for a couple minutes, I decided to ask the courthouse officer monitoring

On observing the District Court a number of distinctions from the Local Courts were immediately made apparent. Without going in to detail about the actual structure of the courts, they seemed to fit more closely with the traditional schema of a typical courtroom. In particular the larger courtrooms with more facilities combined with the barristers and magistrates wearing their wig and robes seemed to instantly uphold the ideology of justice. It is interesting to note how appearances can automatically provide an impression that justice will be upheld. The

My name is Md Kalim Uddin. I went to observe a misdemeanor case in borrow Queens County, Kew Garden Supreme court on Nov 20, 2017, at 10:00 am with my fellow classmate Rochelle. Inside the Supreme court, we went to the room number part Ap-4. It was my first time to observe a misdemeanor case. I was eagerly waiting for this moment. The judge was a female and her name was DB Aziz. It was a curious moment for me and what I have observed was very interesting but on the the time also was emotionally upsetting.

On March 17, 2017 at approximately 1533 hours, Inmate Gonzalez provided an audio statement stating the following in sum and substance. Gonzalez stated, he went to the law library because he is working on his article 78 and needed some paperwork to be notarized. He stated the officer, Officer Gary described as African American, 6’ in height, about 180 lbs. in weight was harassing him and only half of his paperwork was notarized. Gonzalez asked the Officer for a stapler to staple the copies he made. Gonzalez stated, the officer gave him a broken stapler and he went back to the officer, and told him the stapler is broken. However the officer continued giving him the same broken stapler. He also requested staples and it was not provided. Gonzalez

Visiting to Snohomish Court is my first time to experience about the court in my life. In my country, I never go to a court because I thought that only lawyers and people who break law need to attend in the court. To be honest, it is an amazing trip, so I will never forget the time when I was there. After I arrived at the Court at 8:20am, I was extremely worried because it was my first time to visit the court in the US. However, the employees of the Snohomish court are really nice to me. First, when I looked at the map to find the way go to the Mission Building, a police asked me what I was looking for. Then, he told me he could take me to the Mission Building. When we were heading to the Mission Building, we had a fun conversation.

During Thanksgiving break, I went to visit my uncle in Phoenix, Arizona. Knowing about the court observation paper that was due, I thought it would be interesting if I witnessed a court hearing in a different state in a totally different culture. While I was in Arizona I went to the Glendale Municipal Court and heard the court case of the State of Arizona v. Gonzales. Mr. Gonzales was being convicted of theft of a controlled property. Theft of a controlled property is when a person commits theft without lawful authority and the person then has the intent to deny the person that they in fact stole their property. I went to the initial hearing of this case and it was very interesting.

So I went to the courtroom on Monday, I was planning to go to the criminal court but when I arrived I the GPS guided me to the civil court so I and two interpreter but I am so impress interpreter (Hannah) know everything I follow her where going to court criminal when I got there we have to go through the security and the building and I think because its not new and in a great condition like the civil court so when I got in I and interpreter went to the information desk get information about the court case that’s on, after that I went to a court room on the two floor department 26, the court room look same very different than my imagination I thought the court looks very old fashion with those European style decoration and uncomfortable seat like those in the church, but the court room I went to was actually very modern and the seat are soft not like the church style wooden seat, the court room was quite small I the it can only fit around few people according to my observation, so the judge sat at front and the jury is on the left and side and it has a small desk right next to the entrance for the police officer in the court and the judge ‘s seat and desk is high than any other seat and desk in the room. I and Interpreter sit back near door and I want thank to them note for me, I don 't understand court and lawyer was so fast speak but hard for me write notes then two interpreter willing notes share for me.