Week One (1):

To start off my Hawken Project, my mentor and I decided that it would be best to start off my shadowing program at the Juvenile Justice Center on Quincy Avenue. I started the project here because if I was to be a prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, I would have to start with juvenile cases before eventually moving downtown. When I first arrived at the center, I was met by Brett Kyker, prosecuting attorney, and juvenile division chief. After getting a rundown on the unit, APA Kyker placed me with two prosecutors, Hallie and Jason, that I would be following for the day. We started the day off by talking with a public defense attorney about a case that was being pleaded out later that day. This is when I immediately started to realize how different things are in real life than they are on the crime shows. On shows like Law and Order SVU, the district attorney and the defense attorney have very tense and aggressive conversations. There seems to be a lot of competition and hatred towards each other. While the competition is there, in real life, the prosecutors and the defense attorneys seem to have very good relationships. In the meeting, they came to a civil agreement as to what charges should be dropped should the defendant plead guilty. After this, they started to talk about their lives and their weekend plans. The conversations and relations are much more civil than you'd imagine. The next part of my day was actually going to the courtroom to listen to this case plea out. I was able to sit in Judge Michael Ryan's courtroom where he met me with a kind and welcoming energy. As the plea began, the judge asked the young defendant many questions that helped him understand what he was fully doing (giving up his right to trial, understanding that the judge can punish him however he wants, etc). This was new to me because normally when I have seen courtroom scenes, the judge is normally simply moderating and looking out for objections. In reality, depending on the judge, of course, they are more tolerant and they look out for the defendants in most cases, especially juveniles. For the rest of the day, because cases had been continued, there was a lot of free time. From this, I learned that being a prosecutor doesn't mean you spend all of your days doing the intense trials, but rather a good amount of sitting around.

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