Saturday, February 22, 2014

Hostile Witness

The trial will be ending soon. I cannot wait to get back to my family and some down time. A coming post will definitely be on the handling of hostile witnesses, which I had to do for the first time during this trial. Twice.

See you all in a week.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Trials

33 witnesses down, 30 more to go. See you all when we get to the finish line (which actually might be next week).

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Cameras in the Corridor

After the seventh day of trial, tomorrow is a day off due to a New York State court holiday. The holiday does not extend to us lowly county employees so I am working, although with the trial in full swing I would have been in anyway. As a sign of rebellion though, I am thinking of dressing business casual tomorrow. Scandal, I know.

I came home today to the news and saw that they were reporting on my current trial. Both defense attorneys gave interviews to the media, but I declined. As a prosecutor, getting your face in front of the camera is never a good thing unless you are the big boss. But then the news story shifted and I watched video of my witnesses leaving the courtroom.

Trials are public affairs and the media has a duty to report on them. But there is something unsettling about witnesses being displayed for the world to see. I am sure the witnesses don't want it and I certainly don't. It can only negatively affect my ability to convince witnesses to do the right thing and testify if they have to be recorded doing the right thing.

Judges usually leave the decision on whether to allow cameras to the defense attorneys as their clients will be the ones on camera all the time. During trials though, I object to any filming of witnesses or jurors. A person should not have to be subjected to that simply because they are performing their civic duty or because a person was unlucky enough to be a witness to a crime.

For those of you that have emailed me, I appreciate your patience. I'll get back to you as quick as I can. My day job gets in the way of this blog a lot of the time.

Monday, February 3, 2014

The Long and Winding Road

We began jury selection today and are moving slowly. I'll post a recap once all is said and one in a month (yes a month).

For now, I just hope to provide you all some good stories and insight as we move forward. Thanks to one of our commenters for providing this story about the trouble of a prosecutor speaking about the case over social media while the case is in progress.