Law Humor

A Court Reporter Not To Be Messed With

By John Mesirow

Vietnam veteran and court reporter Ronald Tolkin was in the right place at the right time. That place was a courtroom in Brooklyn, New York. Others present: prosecutor Carolyn Pokorny, defendant Victor Wright, Judge Block, and U.S. Marshal Alvarez. As reported by nymag.com, after lunging at Ms. Pokorny with a contraband razor, "[Wright] was tackled first by ... Tolkin, who later reconstructed the incident based on digital recordings. His unofficial transcript, first leaked to AbovetheLaw.com, is excerpted below."

(Time noted: 3:30 p.m.)
(Whereupon Judge Block takes the bench.)
Ms. Pokorny: Hello.
Court Reporter: Good afternoon, Your Honor.
Mr. Rabkin: How are you? How are you, Judge?
The Court: Fine, and you?
?
The Court: Is [defense attorney] Mr. Batchelder here?
Courtroom Deputy Clerk: Yes. He is in with Mr. Wright.
The Court: All right.
(Whereupon Mr. Batchelder, the defendant, and Deputy U.S. Marshal Alvarez and Deputy U.S. Marshal Vavasis enter the courtroom.)
Courtroom Deputy Clerk: Well, Mr. Wright looks better today. He looked like he was depressed and a broken man the last time.
(Whereupon the defendant turns toward Ms. Pokorny and attacks her.) (Whereupon there is screaming.)
Court Reporter: You cocksucker, get off of her. Get off of her. Get off of her. You cocksucker, get off of her.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Get off of her.
Court Reporter: I will beat the shit out of you, you motherfucker. You cocksucker. Who the fuck do you think you are?
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Get off.
Court Reporter: Try it on me, man. I?ll kick you in the fuckin? balls.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Get off her.
The Defendant: I apologize.
Court Reporter: You apologize, you piece of shit.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Get off of her.
The Defendant: They are choking me.
Court Reporter: You fuckin? put your hands behind your back, you cocksucker.
?
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Move your hands behind your back. Move them now.
Court Reporter: I got one. I got one hand. I got one. I got one.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Put your hands behind your back.
Court Reporter: Get the other one. Cuff from the other.
U.S. Marshal Vavasis: You fuckin? asshole. You motherfucker.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Leave him there now.
Court Reporter:: You cocksucker.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Leave him there.
Court Reporter: Fuckin? shit. Son of a bitch. I?m all right. Where is Carolyn?
Courtroom Deputy Clerk: I told her to leave.
?
Female Court Security Officer: 10-4 control, we need an ambulance. 10-4. In 10-C we need an ambulance to be called, please.
Control: 10-4.
Court Reporter: Is she all right, Carolyn?
Female Court Security Officer: She wants an ambulance.
Court Reporter: Good. All right. You will have to put this over.
Courtroom Deputy Clerk: No shit, Sherlock.
Court Reporter: Yeah.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: She is feeling okay but she got like some bruises.
Court Reporter: You better get an ambulance.
U.S. Marshal Vavasis: We are just going to take this guy in the back?
Control: 10-4.
Court Reporter: This is going to be put over anyway.
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Yeah, I know.
Court Reporter: It can be put over because we are not doing nothing today. I have it on audio. I have it all on audio. That fuckin??
(Telephone ringing.)
The Court: The Marshals are here?
Court Reporter: Two Marshals are here. They took him down. They took him down, Judge. Carolyn is going to have an ambulance to go to the hospital.
The Court: What happened to her?
Court Reporter: She got all bruised, Your Honor. She wants to go to the hospital. I guess we are going to put this over?
The Court: Yes, it is going to be put over.
Court Reporter: Yes.
The Court: But why didn?t the Marshals respond? [The panic button] did not work, Mike? I am terribly concerned about this.
Courtroom Deputy Clerk: All right. In the old building we had to press it in.
(Telephone ringing.)
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: Look what I found.
(Whereupon the Marshal picks up a razor blade.)
Court Reporter: What is that, a razor?
U.S. Marshal Alvarez: It is a razor blade. He was going to cut her.
Court Reporter: Great.
...
Court Reporter: Let me turn this off.

Here's the source.

Full post as published by Legal Juice on April 02, 2008 (boomark / email).