I had a court appearance today. Judge Brown was out, and so the civil matters were sent over to Courtroom 6. I had to wait until the family court calendar was completed, so I decided to wander the halls briefly and catch up on gossip. Nobody was talking about Dikeman, however, there were copies of today’s ER laying on the top of the backrests of the benches with the big bolded headline WORTH DIKEMAN DISCUSSES FIRING. I read the interview, but found little sustenance in the story. Only a little bitterness seaped through, and Dikeman mostly showed some class and hope for the county’s criminal justice system. When asked how he thought the D.A.’s office was being run, he responded:

I don’t find fault with the recent hires Paul has made. There’’s only one attorney in the office, aside from Paul, who I think doesn’t exercise good judgment.

So do you think the “one” is Schwartz or Keats?

I went back to the civil end of the hall, gossiped with one of Andy Stunich’s partners, and made my appearance. My car was in the shop and I had some time to kill so I thought I’d take in a trial. In Courtroom 3 there was a tree-hugger trial from the looks of the defendants, but it didn’t grab my interest. Courtroom 8 had some sort of preliminary hearing which I also found boring. Courtroom 7 was handling the small claims – I think the judges are shorthanded this week – and Courtroom 1 was locked shut. So I headed over to Courtroom 2 where Gallegos himself was prosecuting the murder trial we’ve all been reading about. Actually, I’m not up on the facts except that it looks like the fallout from a shoot-out between crank-heads down here in Myers Flat. The defendant was of course well groomed for trial. I watched for awhile as a defense expert was testifying about the angle of the bullet trajectory through the victim, commenting after a video he relied on about how sometimes cops are wrongfully accused of shooting suspects in the back when the suspect twists and turns while being shot at (I wonder if the film will be used if any litigation comes out of the Cheri Moore incident). Gallegos cross-examined to establish that there was another scenario to explain the trajectory, particularly the scenario that would point to guilt. The expert admitted it was also possible. The court then announced the introduction of audio-tape evidence that would take the rest of the morning, and so I left.

But before I left, I noticed that one of the alternate jurors had a copy of the ER, headline faced up. Either she had not been instructed to forego reading the papers, or she was not heeding the instruction. She was however taking copious notes, and so I assume she was taking her task seriously. I note that there is an article about the trial in today’s edition.

McCrea was still busy with my car, so I walked to Oldtown for a bagel at Los Bagels. An elderly gentleman greeted an elderly couple he apparently knew as he came into the shop. He made his purchase then grabbed an ER and his eyes widened at the headline, presumably the Dikeman headline. He brought it over to his friends, who also perked up and the couple agreed as the first gentleman said “he had it coming.”

My car ended up taking most of the day, so I called the office to discuss some items that my partner would have to attend to in my absence and decided to visit some friends over on B Street. The male half has now had a personal conversation with both Neely and Fleming, the former in his living room for about an hour as she recently pounded the pavement, and the latter near the water where he made the mistake of mentioning that the photo on her signs wasn’t flattering. Ms. Fleming was slightly flustered and said it was “just a snap shot.” He didn’t really discuss politics with either.

When my car was ready, I walked over to McCrea, by the rapidly deteriorating Downtowner Motel and behind the hauntingly dormant Eureka Inn. Nice day. Got a lot of walking in. If you saw a bearded guy in a dark suit wandering around it was probably me.

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