Court Reporter Saves Prosecutor...

Brave Court Reporter Saves the Day...court reporters seem to add something to a courtroom those recording machines simply cannot do...they help protect the lives of innocent people!

Do not let the bean counters remove this bastion of civility in our courtrooms!!

Write a letter to your superior court justice and let them know that the American Justice System needs people not machines!!

~ The Beagle

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Courtroom chaos as convict with razor attacks prosecutor
BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, March 12th 2008
Ward for News

Attorney Harry Batchelder (above) shows cut suffered when he and court reporter Ronald Tolkin (below) had to stop his client from attacking prosecutor Carolyn Pokorny.
Ward for News

A razor-wielding drug thug grabbed U.S. prosecutor Carolyn Pokorny in a headlock yesterday and slammed her to the floor at his sentencing in Brooklyn federal court.
Victor Wright had Pokorny by the hair and seemed ready to wield the makeshift weapon when his lawyer and a court reporter leapt in to save her.

"I think he was going to slash her throat," defense lawyer Harry Batchelder, 72, told the Daily News. "He fully intended to maim her."

"His face was full of rage," agreed Ronald Tolkin, the 60-year-old court reporter.
Wright, 37, was a key lieutenant of drug kingpin Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff who founded the Supreme Team in the 1980s, a drug gang that wreaked havoc in southeast Queens.
McGriff is serving a life sentence for murder at Florence ADX Penitentiary in Colorado, the nation's most secure federal prison. Wright's sentencing was adjourned after the shocking courtroom attack.

It didn't appear that escape was the intention of the powerfully built inmate - just revenge.
"He thinks she framed him," said Batchelder.

The havoc in Judge Frederic Block's courtroom started as Wright was led in through a side door shortly after 3 p.m.

He made a beeline straight for Pokorny, chief of the narcotics section for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office, and took her down.

"He had her by the hair, she was screaming," said courtroom clerk Michael Innelli. "She was at the bottom of a pile."

Wright dropped the makeshift weapon on the carpet during the struggle with Batchelder and Tolkin.

Eugene Corcoran, chief U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of New York, said an internal investigation is underway to determine how the weapon was smuggled into the courthouse.