J4450: Trial by Fire

The discussion in Tuesday’s reporting lecture concerning this story about a man’s sentencing got me thinking about my experience covering court during my internship this summer at my hometown’s paper.

The two authors of that Missourian story talked in class about the challenges of covering a court case. Hearing what people say is difficult because everyone speaks in a whisper. Interpreting what information is necessary is hard because there’s so much information coming it’s hard to get it all down. And dealing with the people involved, particularly family, is difficult because emotions can run high.

I only covered two court cases during the summer – and both of them were challenging because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

The first one involved a crime that happened in the early 1980s. A man molested a young girl. He wasn’t convicted until much later though, and, he would eventually serve less jail time because the court decided to count the time he was under house arrest during the long trial towards his sentence. I covered that hearing that decided this.

The whole time the convict was in the courtroom, the father of the molested girl looked pretty much like you think the father of a molested daughter would look: bleeping pissed. I was surprised he was able to stay silent through all the proceedings. The defendant, the young girl who was now a grown woman, was nowhere to be found.

I tried to interview the family afterwards. But the mom turned away as soon as I came up, the dad handed me a piece of paper with a statement and the sister opened her mouth but then began to cry. I didn’t really know what to do. I stood there for a few minutes in silence while she tried to compose herself, but I didn’t get anything. I gave them my number and told them to call if they wanted to talk.

The defendant then called me about putting the letter at the end of the article in the paper. Yeah…I said “um” a lot when I was speaking to her. (I told her I needed to ask my editor about it; she thought it was a good idea.)

The second court case – about a sheriff’s deputy accused of coercing a sexual favor from a young woman to get out of DWI ticket – I covered was an actual trial. It lasted a week. I filled up about four reporter’s notebooks, front and back. I was writing down everything that came out of each witness’ mouth and the two attorneys’. The third day of the trial my pen ran out of ink and I had to borrow a pen from the bailiff (whose son I knew from high school) to keep taking notes. That’s the day I learned to always bring backup.

Anyway, the lawyers spoke quietly so I was constantly leaning closer in the pew-like seats of the courtroom, straining my hearing. On days I couldn’t get a front row seat, my note book kept almost hitting the defendant’s father in the back of his head while I scratched away at the paper.

While writing the story (and several updates over the week; there’s some other ones here, here and here if you’re interested), I put my head in twists trying to find a grasp on the important while trying to let go of the extraneous. Why the hell did they give this to the intern? I kept thinking while I pounded away at my keyboard, attempting to make sense of the information overload that was the case.

So, yeah, covering court is difficult.