EL PASO, TEXAS –
“Trial courts are obligated to take every reasonable measure to accommodate public attendance at criminal trials.” U.S. Supreme Court – Presley v. Georgia (2010)
It’s summer 2014 in El Paso.
The sixth floor is nearly empty at the federal courthouse. I wait for U.S. Magistrate Robert Castaneda to begin his hearings. There are two of us in the hallway – a guy who said his name is Jorge and I.
I’m wearing a blue coat loaned to me from the private company hired to provide security for the courthouse.
Earlier, I was told by courthouse security guard Mr. Sanchez that I had to wear a coat to get inside the courtroom. After getting past the metal detector and waiting for nearly an hour outside the courtroom he decides to spring the coat rule on me.
I admit that I’m not happy. I ask: “Where is the closet with the coats and ties in case somebody forgets to wear a coat or tie?”
There isn’t one.
When then U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton had his coat-and-tie rule, I told Mr. Sanchez that the judge kept a closet full of coats and a box full of ties. I covered the federal courthouse when I worked for the El Paso Herald-Post and the El Paso Times. Everybody knew Bunton’s dress code. Everyone complied.
No problem.
Is the dress code posted on the courthouse website or at the front entrance of the building or do you guys assume that everybody who walks into the federal building is able to read minds? I ask sarcastically.
Nobody seems to know the dress code and that cell phones are not allowed inside the building until they try to walk into the building. The only people who can take a cell phone into the federal building in El Paso are attorneys.
Mr. Sanchez talks to his boss via radio. The boss said they would be able to lend me a coat to get inside the courtroom.
I was lucky.
Jorge, who preferred not to give his last name, is sitting two benches down on the sixth floor.
One of the guards standing beside the metal detector near the entrance of the federal building told Jorge that he would need to buy a shirt or he couldn’t get into the courtroom.
Jorge told me he lives across the border in Juarez and as a favor for a family friend, he agreed to go to the federal court in El Paso and find out why Elsee Torres had been busted by the feds.
Not too familiar with the downtown courthouses, Jorge said he first went to the state courthouse across the street from the new federal courthouse. They then directed him to the old federal courthouse across the street from the state courthouse.
From there, Jorge was told that those criminal hearings were being held at the new federal building adjacent to the old federal courthouse.
When he finally got to the new federal courthouse, which was constructed in 2010, the security guard standing near the metal detector stops him. Jorge can’t go inside the building. He has a body shirt. Jorge said he left, hurried to a low-end clothing store a block away and asked a store salesman to sell him the cheapest shirt they had: Price tag – $3.00.
He bought it and put it on, it got inside the federal building and went up to Magistrate Castaneda’s courtroom.
My loaner coat and Jorge’s new shirt assure us passage inside the courtroom. We are going to get into a United States courtroom.
No sooner do we walk into the courtroom, when I observe other people walk in wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. I count four pair of blue jeans and several pair of tennis shoes. More than a dozen criminal defendants sit in the courtroom. They are dressed in government-issued, dark-blue federal jail jump suits.
I am over dressed at these initial criminal hearings.
The Taxpayer Funded Federal Ghost Town in El Paso
The federal courthouse in El Paso makes a ghost town look crowded. Maybe, it’s because I was there on a Friday afternoon on a hot September day. But I have been there on other days of the week, and there is not that much difference.
It might also be that inside of the building the environment is unfriendly, very unwelcoming.
I like courthouses. Courtrooms are some of the most fascinating places on the planet. But this is from someone who has covered more than 120 murder trials, not to mention hundreds criminal and civil hearings and trials.
Most people go to the zoo to see the gorillas or visit historical sites while on vacation – I will sometimes visit courtrooms, call me crazy, but the characters, story plots, wealth of legal information, conflicts, triumphs, frustration, bickering, drama, the whole gamut of emotional twists and turns – that in seconds can turn from joy to tears to rage – can be found inside courtrooms.
The federal and state robed gods who sit on the benches are interesting to watch: Some are abrasive, rude and curt. Others are patient, compassionate and understanding. There is little in between.
Judge Lucius Bunton’s sense of humor was off the charts, and he made jurors laugh, smile and feel good about being in his courtroom. I loved watching him preside over cases.
The things a person can learn inside a courtroom are incredible, not just about the judicial system but the testimony from medical, forensic, psychological, DNA, accounting and other experts. It’s amazing stuff.
The Phone Calls and Emails
Who makes up these dress and cell phone rules at federal courthouses? Well, everybody who believes he or she knows what is best for the community.
After weeks and months of going back and forth with emails and phone calls to the following people – Charles Hall, the spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington D.C.; Tom Hilburger, divisional office manager at U.S. District Court in El Paso and Melesio Hernandez Sr., the chief deputy U.S. Marshal’s Office in San Antonio and back to the U.S. Court Administration in Washington D.C. – I finally got some answers, and some good news.
In January, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Martinez thought I had legitimate concerns and ordered that the rules about the dress code be put at the front entrance of the El Paso’s federal courthouse, said Mr. Melesio Hernandez.
I had been told that I was wearing a body shirt and that is why they were asking that I wear a coat to get inside the courtroom. I said I was wearing a black body shirt with a pocket, dress pants and shoes. I noted that I’ve always wore a coat and tie while covering the courts for more than 18 years as a newspaper reporter.
Hey, it’s also summer in El Paso, which means the only people wearing coats and ties are lawyers, bankers or unshaven, disheveled people bundled up and pushing shopping carts with personal belongings. It isn’t unusual to have back-to-back 100-degree-plus temperatures.
And I am on vacation.
What About Cell Phones?
Then, I threw a monkey wrench into my phone conversation with Mr. Hernandez: “What about cell phones?”
Silence.
“That is another issue,” he said.
I explained that the El Paso federal courthouse only allows attorneys to go into the courtroom with cell phones. So the security guards turn people away who aren’t attorneys who have cell phones. So people have to walk back to their parked cars to leave their cell phones inside their vehicles.
In January, two years earlier, I walked into the El Paso federal courthouse with a cell phone. No cell phones. Frustrated, I said, “you’ve got to be kidding?” It was cold. I told them I had just walked three blocks, and why wasn’t this policy posted on the entrance or website?
On this very slow January day, the security guards were nice enough to keep my cell phone and give it back when I was leaving.
I asked Mr. Hernandez:
“What about people who ride the bus or have someone drop them off at the federal courthouse and don’t know about the cell phone policy? What are they supposed to do with their cell phones?”
Mr. Melesio Hernandez said: “That’s another issue.”
Last week, Mr. Hernandez said the El Paso federal courthouse will now have lockboxes where people can store their cell phone while they are in the building and retrieve them when they leave.
“I appreciate you bringing it to my attention because it’s something that needs to be looked at,” he said. “We definitely don’t want to be in the business of inconveniencing members of the public that go into the building to observe a hearing or participate in a hearing.”
El Paso and San Antonio are federal courthouses assigned to the Western District of Texas but have different cell phone rules.
Mr. Hernandez said the judges in San Antonio allow people to bring cell phones into the courtrooms as long as they are turned off in court – period. Photography or texting aren’t allowed, he said
The 94 Federal Judicial Districts in the United States
It would be easy to use El Paso as an example of how a judges’ dress code rules and cell phone policies can make it hard for the public to get inside a courtroom.
The truth of the matter is that there are 94 federal court districts where more than 660 judges are assigned. These districts include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Also, three territories of the United States — the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands — have district courts that hear federal cases, including bankruptcy cases.
Want to know whether there is a dress code or cell phone policy at a federal courthouse? Don’t bother to look at the websites, in most cases, nothing seems to be posted on dress codes or cell phone policies.
Unlike the Pentagon or the Department of Justice where there are uniform policies, Mr. Hall said the federal government allows judges from each of the 94 districts to decide what people can wear and whether they can take cell phones inside courtrooms.
“Unless we specifically say, ‘you have to do something or you can’t do something,’ then, it is an enormous latitude for judges at the local level to go whichever way they want as long they aren’t actually violating a mandatory national policy or an act of Congress,” said Mr. Hall.
He said a study was done a few years ago on what the policy was for personal electronics, and it varied. Mr. Hall said some court districts like El Paso don’t allow the public to walk into the building with cell phones.
On the other end of the spectrum there are federal courts that allow reporters to bring laptops inside courtrooms.
“It is just a small number,” he said.
It is a “broad acceptance” that the judges assigned to each federal courthouse know what is best for their community as far as a dress code and cell phone policies, Mr. Hall said.
Mr. Hall said people who want to offer suggests, comments or criticism regarding the nation’s federal courthouses rules and policies can contact the U.S. Courts’ Judicial Conference, which meets twice a year.
“I think the issues you are raising are really good, public service issues,” he said.
Some Guards Enforce No-Photos Rules Outside Courthouses
The United States Courts web site also welcomes and encourages visitors to courthouses.
“With certain very limited exceptions, each step of the federal judicial process is open to the public. Many federal courthouses are historic buildings, and all are designed to inspire in the public a respect for the tradition and purpose of the American judicial process,” according to court officials.
“An individual citizen who wishes to observe a court in session may go to the federal courthouse, check the court calendar, and watch a proceeding. Anyone may review the pleadings and other papers in a case by going to the clerk of court’s office and asking for the appropriate case file.”
Apparently, some of the security guards haven’t received the memo about “historic buildings” that are “designed to inspire…etc.”
In 2013, a man was arrested for standing on the sidewalk taking photographs of the Phoenix federal courthouse. He was immediately released after a U.S. attorney found what he was doing wasn’t illegal.
These weren’t isolated cases – Youtube has plenty examples of rude security guards and law enforcement officials who don’t know or understanding people’s constitutional rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court Decisions About Constitutional Rights of Criminal Defendants
There are a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that address the importance of guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants to have open and fair trials and hearings along with accommodating the public during the jury selection process.
These cases include – Presley v. Georgia (2010); Richmond v. Virginia (1980); Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court (1982); Press Enterprise I v. Superior Court of California (1983) and Press Enterprise II v. Superior Court of California (1986).
“There are benefits in having the public attend open trials, the Supreme Court said in the Richmond Newspapers vs. Virginia case: public confidence is enhanced in the judicial system; the public serves as a watchdog against abuses; public trials promote the truth finding process and helps achieve a community catharsis following a serious crime.”
“Where the trial has been concealed from public view, the unexpected outcome can cause a reaction that the system at best has failed and at worst has been corrupted,” wrote Justice Burger in Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia case.
In Presley v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court thew out a drug conviction because a judge didn’t accommodate the uncle of the defendant. The justices said judges must make every effort to accommodate the public even during the jury selection process.
BTW: The Supreme Court website has information about tours, its gift shop, cafeteria and public lectures.
Jorge’s Family Friend’s Relative
Jorge’s family friend’s relative, Elsee Torres, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 80 pounds of liquid methamphetamine across the border.
The hearing with the dozen-plus defendants was over in 25 minutes.
I go across the street into the state courthouse through the metal detectors, go up a few floors in the elevator, cross the pedestrian walkway to get into parking garage, open the car door, look under the driver’s seat and get my cell phone.
I check my phone messages. I had to leave my cell phone under my seat to get inside the federal courthouse.
I drive away – I should have gone to the zoo.