Jan 9th, 2008 - Criminal Court

I met Clark Kent today. He actually works in the press room of the Criminal Court downtown.

Well... it LOOKED like him, down to his tie and spectacles. Prof. Reiner pointed it out as we toured the Press room at the NY Criminal Court. I couldn't help but chuckle. This Clark Kent look-a-like is one of the staff photographers that the Post has holed up with a bunch of reporters working the court beat. This room, as Prof Selvin pointed out, was really just an old, tiny room, lined with rotten, yellow front pages of court cases from the New York Post. The entire time I was in the courthouse, I wasn't allowed to show a camera, lest a bunch of court security guards wrestle me to the ground. The courthouse had signs everywhere and had very strict rules on cameras (cell-phone camera counts too).

This woman, as I recall, is one of the reporters there. And the man was one of the two photographers. I was allowed to get a few snap shots of the little press room, and it was interesting to see what a goldmine of fabulous fairy-tales and sensational stories that the press could dig from the court. We remember the OJ-Simpson case and recently, the Britney child custody case because of the extensive media coverage. People love a good, scandalous story before they go to work. It really wasn't until today that I changed my opinion on court reporting from being a very tedious beat to a beast that spits out some nail-biting dramas.

Prof. Reiner pointed out a few infamous stories on the wall plastered with court dramas, including one about a model in an abusive relationship who was slashed back in the mid-eighties.It was an interesting tour of the media corner in the courthouse. I didn't even know the court gave a room to the media. It was interesting to hear the reporters tell us that they barely spend anytime back at the their respective newspapers at all. When they go to work, they head to this room and just file all their stories to the Post headquarters. Ah, the wonders of the information superhighway. The class seemed to really enjoy the press room tour. Especially Rohma. :-)This post isn't exactly going in chronological order, haha. But in my effort to keep this blog more visually oriented (because most of you don't read the text anyway, unless you really love me or you are in the J-department), I found the press room the highlight of our visit.

We did talk with Diana Florence, Assistant District Attorney. She loved to talk, a lot. She went on for a while about her experiences in her position, and was apparently Prof. Reiner's upstairs neighbor. As we sat there for an hour, she told some interesting cases she had worked on. Including a woman named Antoinette.

Antoinette thought she was a princess from Saudi royalty and stole a bundle of jewelry trying to explain to the court that it was stolen during a casual day stroll through Lexington Avenue in broad daylight. She tried to explain this case to Diana Florence, but Florence thought something was fishy and investigated further.

It turned out she was trying to commit insurance fraud. On top of that, she had also obtained a American Express Black card. You might have heard of the Visa Platinum card, but the Black card is for multi-millionaires and high-rollers who likes to purchase luxury goods in bulk. In one month, she bought a million dollars in clothes, luxury goods, and shiny tiaras, further solidifying her status as a princess. Meanwhile, as the bank happily expected another high-roller to cover their bill, she only had at estimated $48 dollars and change on her account. She was caught and charged with attempted insurance fraud, grand larceny, and some other crimes I can't recall on top of my head.

Antoinette somehow convinced the judges that she was crazy and she was sent to a psych ward instead of serving time. Florence's detective called her sometime later on to find that she was sent out for "shopping therapy." Antoinette was called back and was sentenced for a year to prison. She finished her term about a month ago, and I can't wait to see her soon in the papers again.

After our visit to the press room, we sat in a criminal court for misdemeanors and violations. We watched as people were sentenced fines or days in prison. It was interesting for a while and although cameras weren't allowed. Take a look at my amazing courtroom sketch. Click on it to see it in detail.We left the courthouse, stopped for coffee (most of us are running on an average of six hours of sleep), and headed back to the campus to edit and work on our stories. Will was hard at work making phone calls arranging time to shoot extra footage tomorrow morning as my group worked on our script. We wrapped it up at 5. People had friend's birthdays, dates, or plain sleep to attend to.
By the way, many people have asked about my camera. This is a blog and I don't want to start advertising camera equipment here, but it is a Canon Rebel XTi with a Canon 50mm Prime F1.4 lens.

And in case you were wondering what Clark Kent looked like, here he is.I expect him to excuse himself to the bathroom and jump out of his tie into a pair of blue tights if an alarm goes off. WHAM! POW!