My Big Day in Court.....

....or How I was Almost Stabbed While Wandering Through the Tenderloin.

As part of our Evidence class, we have to go watch 2 1/2 hours of a jury trial. I sort of put it off, so now I have to get it done because there's only this week left in class.

I got up early this morning, dragged my ass to BART and rode into the city. Now, I planned ahead and got directions from the BART station to the federal court house in San Francisco. When I get to U.N. Plaza, I find a sign with the "You Are Here" and figure out which way to go. From the directions I printed, it seemed pretty easy....

Unfortunately, I went the wrong way. I must have looked at the map wrong because I ended up walking 3 or 4 blocks in the wrong direction. I turn around and head back towards the BART station and along the way, I come across one of the street where the court house is. But I'm several blocks away. I figured it was easiest to just walk up the street to the court house rather than go back to the beginning and try to follow the original instructions.

As I'm walking, I start to get the feeling that I should have just gone back to BART. The stench of urine was very strong the further I walked up the street.
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Then what should appear before me but an STD clinic with a long line of eager customers. Yes ladies and gentleman, I got myself lost in the Tenderloin.

If you recall, this is the place where my mom and I saw the homeless man with no pants, urinating on the street when we went to visit U.C. Hastings.

I didn't particularly want to walk by the STD clinic and its patrons, so I took a left at the next street, only to pass by another group of unseemly characters.

Along the way, I did in fact pass by UC Hastings again. Finally after all my wandering I found the damn court house.

I went inside, made it up to the 19th floor and found the courtroom. I was supposed to watch 2 1/2 hours. I only made it 30 minutes.

It was SO boring. I don't even know what the case was about. The professor had sent out an email saying that a classmate had gone to watch part of the trial and said it was interesting. He or she was lying! The defense was questioning some guy about accounting practices for his company. It wasn't fun like Law and Order. There was no shouting, or dramatic revelations.

So I left. I didn't finish the assignment and now I have to go find another trial to watch. But I just couldn't sit there for another 2 hours. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the superior court in Oakland. Apparently there's a murder and an attempted murder trial going on. That should be more entertaining. At least there's the possibility that one of the defendants will flip out and take the courtroom hostage.

Wish me luck!