"Your Honor, I avoid her like the plague!"

Day 9

We spent the entire day in the District IV General Sessions court listening to all the cases on the Domestic Violence docket. When we arrived we were seated VIP style in the first two rows behind the "General's"(assistant district attorney) table. The first half of the day standard Orders of Protection were issued and other matters were settled. On the bench the judge was all business and no-nonsense but in person he was completely hilarious! We had lunch with him where we were able to get all our questions about the first half of the day answered. He was very excited to have us.

The afternoon session of court was reserved for hearings. The most interesting hearing was a man who was jailed for three years for beating his mother mercilessly. He was in court today for violating an Order of Protection his sister had on him. An order of protection often involves no contact at all but he spoke to his sister when he saw her one day which meant he violated the order. He told the court today that typically when he sees his sister he "avoids her like the plague." Since he was found guilty of violating the OP he was given the maximum sentence of 11-29 (11 month & 29 days) in jail.

Today was the first day that we got to hear the abuser's side of the story and see what they look like. Many trip participants said that what concerned them most was that a lot of the abusers looked like "normal" people that we interact with everyday. Attending court and interacting with the judge was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for most of us.

~Fearless Leader #1