Statement Of Experience

During my day at the Washoe Second Judicial District Courthouse, I learned many things about how our judicial system works. I interviewed many of the staff and several of the judges, most of which are available on this blog. I also sat in on two court proceedings overseen by two different judges. I saw how the conduct of the court is really determined by the judge, and that sometimes even a little humor and friendlyness can be a part of the judicial process. I began my visit by entering the courthouse at the side entrance, and then took he elevator up to the second floor where Department Nine is located. There I waited for Judge Perry to arrive so I could interview him. However, I learned that he had a very long "crim calendar" that morning, so I decided to interview him after that morning's proceedings and had a seat in the court room. A baliff named Carl showed me to my seat. On one side of the courtroom were prisoners, unshaven and in their finest prison attire, and on the othe side, where I sat, were the friends and family of the aformentioned prisoners. Then the proceedings began.

They went through most of the women prisonors first, most of them were rather pathetic, with drug and alchohol habits, all the while having kids or even a supporting family. Then the men were brought up, and there were some weird ones. Sex offenders, stoners, drunks. Something that lightened the mood for all of us was when a defendant appeared for an addmission of a guilty plea for grand theft auto and could not find his lawyer. When Judge Perry asked what his attorney's name was, but that he was a, "kinda red faced old guy." It was the running joke for the day. I remember most that there was this one man who got really drunk and high and started waving a bat around on his front lawn. As it turns out this was an escalating trend for this guy. The police were called and he provoked them to, "shoot me." He seemed to have a severe case of alchohol related depression. His case had previously been heard by Judge Mills Lane in 1997 and was found guilty. Both his parents were there and pled to the Judge to have mercy and to allow their son to get treatment. He was sentenced to 18-48 months. Then the court recessed so the clerk could go pee.

After we came back from recess, not much more happened. most of the people that got up just wanted to plead guilty. It's quite a strange thing when a person pleads guilty to a crime. The judge goes through a checklist of things to say to the person to make sure that they understand that they are basically signing their life away to the system. They are stripped of their rights and become less than human. The first time I saw it done, I was shocked by the sheer immensity of the statements, but after a while I became used to it. After about the tenth person to plead guilty I thought to myself, "Can't we just slap a sticker on them and ship 'em out?"

So, after hours of sitting in the courtroom taking notes, the proceedings were over and I got to interview the judge. He told me that the number one thing that he would like to change is the fact that there is a very brief relationship between client and attorney, as evident by, "kinda red faced old guy." I learned he had been a marine in his earlier days.

I also got to Interview two other judges, Judge Berry and Judge Breen. Judge Berry was a nice lady who basically told me not to do drugs and to stay in school. She gave me lots of SWAG too. Judge Breen was an interesting fellow. Sharp as a tack for his years. I asked him about his fairly recent ruling on a case concerning police posing as girls on the Internet to lure child molesters. This had been an appeal by the police department on a ruling by Judge Hardesty, who went to the Nevada Supreme Court. Coincidentally, Judge Perry had been the attorney selected to take his place. Judge Breen said that you could only overturn a ruling like that for two reasons: if there was new evidence, or new circumstances. And neither of those qualifications were met. After that I recieved a tour from Judge Breen's legal aide. She was a very cool lady who knew a lot about the courthouse. I got most of that tour on video, which will be on the blog shortly.