Famous Courtroom Drops Four Floors
Newspapers get facts wrong — all the time. Have you ever read a newspaper article about a topic concerning which you had personal knowledge? Did it get all the facts right?
When I ask people that question, the answer is, invariably, “no.”
Case in point: the other day, the L.A. Times reported on Antonio Villaraigosa’s jury duty downtown, in the Criminal Courts Building where I work.
Although the criminal courthouse is across the street from City Hall, its atmosphere is a world away from the stately home of the city’s government, with its high frescoed ceilings and engraved quotations from the likes of Cicero.
The fifth floor hallway — which leads to the courtroom of Judge Lance Ito, among others — was a bustling, chaotic scene. Accused felons consulted with their lawyers. Inconvenienced mothers crocheted angrily. An unhappy toddler keened in the background.
Since when is Lance Ito’s courtroom on the fifth floor? It’s been on the ninth floor since O.J. It was on the ninth floor when I was sent there for a murder trial several months ago. And I’m pretty dang sure it’s still there. (If I’m wrong about this, I’ll let you know tomorrow, when I’m back at work.)
This mistake seems especially odd to me. I mean, I already know these people hardly ever get anything right. But can’t they at least figure out what floor they’re on?
P.S. I’m not really planning on seeking a correction on this, since it seems so trivial. However, if any of you are sadistic and want to pursue it, you know what to do. Just don’t tell ’em I sent you.
Don’t you realize that a fifth floor hallway can lead to an elevator, which can lead one to the ninth floor? For that matter, with the same stretch logic, the trial could have been held in another city, and the hallway could still lead to Judge Lance Ito’s ninth floor courtroom.
Rick S (db07ff) — 9/25/2005 @ 11:23 amOk, now I know it must be LATimes reporters at my courthouse (only 4 stories) that ask as I get off the elevator on the 4th floor
“Is this elevator going down?”
Darleen (f20213) — 9/25/2005 @ 8:11 pmYou were sent to the ninth floor for a murder trial?
Who’d you kill?
Hoystory (d3f447) — 9/26/2005 @ 2:07 am[…] I heard a story from Mrs. P. that directly reinforces this point. My wife joined the office three years before I did, and was getting trained during the jury selection in the O.J. trial. The training took place on the ninth floor of the Criminal Courts Building — the same floor where Judge Ito’s court was and still is. (The L.A. Times thinks it’s on the fifth floor, but that’s another story for another day.) Mrs. P. would routinely see Marcia Clark and Bill Hodgman as she walked to and from her training. Hodgman was always very cordial and went out of his way to speak to the new Deputy DAs — to congratulate them on getting the job, and to tell them what a great career they were going to have. Marcia Clark was more standoffish. […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » The O.J. Posts — Part Two: The Jury (421107) — 8/21/2006 @ 8:39 am