from the FIELD - Chicago Cop.com

CheCkOff
on Court
Procedure
ERE'S A BRIEF REVIEW of court pro­
H cedu reo
The clerks start work between 6 and
7 A.M., depending on the court.
Court sheets are typed up two days
in advance in the Civic Center, and sent
by messenger to the courts. The oldest
cases appear at the top of the sheet on
down to the most recent. They are in
line according to the court M.C.C. (municipal
court clerk) number which is on
the left side of the large court sheet.
The clerk's first job is to take the
day's sheet from the file and write in
the transferrals and new cases. Then
he begins preparing the "futures" ­
cou rt sheets for the next day or two.
The transferrals from other courts are
brought in by messenger; the new cases
come in through Department mail and
are on court transmittal sheets. About
fifty per cent of the day's cases in any
court are "first time up"; the rest are
transferrals, continuances and the like.
Calling Procedure
Motions for continuances are always
heard first, and for a good reason. Motions
sometimes make up half the court
call. QUite a few cases can be cleared
immediately, although motions may take
as much as an hour's time.
Thus, you may be listed on sheet 1,
line 7, but if you have a trial case, you
are not going to be one of the first
called.
Of course, there are countless exceptions
to calling procedure which must
be dealt with minute by minute in the
courtroom.
For instance, the Circuit Court has
ruled that no case can be refused a
hearing in any court, no matter what
time it comes in. Cases should be in
the court between 6 and 8 A.M. But
transferrals have been accepted as late
as noon when they are transferred from
one court to another, or in legal language,
"transferred instanter." When
they arrive, they have to be written in
on the last sheet.
Some cases are held until the officer
or lawyer can get to the court, because
both may have cases in other courts.
At anyone time, a court sergeant may
have notes to hold three, four or even
a dozen cases for officers who are in
other courts and have had their unit
call in on the phone. Sometimes, officers
are already signed in to the courtroom,
but have to notify the court sergeant
and sign out temporarily for another
court. When the lawyer or policeman
does arrive, the case is called as
soon as possible to prevent further
delay.
Attorneys And Public Defenders
Procedures are different in all courts.
Felony, Narcotics, State St. and Boys
Courts have attorneys on 90 per cent of
the cases. The public defender may be
assigned to handle several courts. When
he comes in to Branch 41, Domestic
Relations, and is also handling Branch
27, State St., his cases will be called
immediately.
It is possible for a midnight officer
to be scheduled early on the sheet, to
sit half the day in the courtroom, and
still never be called. Why? He has not
given the correct sheet and line number
to the court sergeant. He's read the
page number instead of the sheet number
on the transmittal. On the transmittal
sheets, the number is entered on the
bottom of the sheet; on the large court
sheets, the number is on the top of the
sheet. When the mistake is discovered,
the officer has to be called, obviously
out of sequence with the sheet.
And there are always the cases that
have to be called now, immediately. Like
the officer who sat in court for two hours
and finally walked over to the sergeant,
apologized, and said he had to leave
because his wife-pointing to a rather
large woman in the second row-was
starting to have labor pains. His case
was called within 30 seconds.
There's one exception that most likely
will never be repeated-one of those
situations police officers have night·
mares about.
Began With Fight
An officer started out on his tour of
duty one evening, and the first thing he
ran into was a street fight, broken bottles
and all. The fighters were arrested
on aggravated battery, the papers were
completed at the District and the officer
was back on the street. That made court
appearance No. 1, Branch 44, Felony
Court.
Next thing you know, he stopped at a
red light and a car sped by him. The officer
put on the spot and pu lied the
driver over. The man got out of his car
but was extremely edgy. The officer
made a search and found a bag of
marijuana. So it was in to the station
again to make out the papers, then
back to the street. That made court appearance
No. 2, Branch 57, Narcotics
Court.
He no more than got back into his
squad car again when he made another
traffic stop. When the driver exited from
his car, he dropped a roll of policy slips
on the ground. That made court appearance
No.3, Branch 27, Rackets Court.
Three cases in three different courts
on the same day. You figure it out. He
did-with a lot of help from the court
sergeants.