Tuesday I arrived at work after being off a week and up in Washington State on my road trip to find a subpoena for court. My first since I started working at El Monte P.D. The subpoena was for a felony prelim, which meant there was a pretty good chance I would testify. Add to that, the case was on a residential burglary where I made a palm print match from the only piece of evidence discovered at the scene.

So I went and talked to the handling detective to find out if he thought I would be needed only to find out he wouldn't be there because his wife was having surgery that day.

Now I have never enjoyed testifying in court, so I was a little stressed thru the work week. I read up on a bunch of stuff on comparing fingerprints and making identifications that I had looked up when I first went back to work, and went over and over my resume for dates of classes etc.

So I arrived at the station early and walked over to court with Tim Siedentopp who showed me around and introduced me to the head D.A. I arrived in court and checked in with the bailiff who told me I could sit in the jury box and wait for the D.A. to arrive. So far, nothing new.

Turns out I had a new D.A. handling my case with an assist from a D.A. who was a filing D.A. at Citrus Court when I was at WCPD. First thing he wanted me to do was to print the defendant and compare the palm print taken from the crime scene to the defendant's prints. I had to run back to El Monte and get print cards and magnifiers and pointers to complete his request. I got the palm print and made the match. The DA told me the public defender wanted to look at the print match.

When the public defender walked in, I recognized him from my days at Citrus Court. We spoke briefly and he looked at the print and left.

When it came time for my testimony, I walked in and received the usual, "do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth... so help you god." I hesitated for just a second and kinda smiled to myself and then said yes I do. I didn't think it was the time to discuss being an atheist!!!

I was pretty nervous when I started, but once I got into my testimony, it went pretty smooth. I have to admit, the public defender filled in a couple of gaps for the D.A. with his questions. The defendant was held to answer for burglary. As I left the witness stand, the public defender asked if I would wait for a moment so that he could talk with me. I said of course.

The public defender came in and complimented me on my testimony and cited his last occasion where he cross examined a print examiner and how the other examiner refused to address the number of points needed for an identification issue and how easily I went thru it and moved on.

So what was an incredibly stressful concern to begin with, turned out very well. As a side note, there was a female attorney who made an appearance for another attorney on a case dressed in a pair of low cut tuxedo pants, a plain black shirt and a little black coat. When she sat down next to me outside the court room, I could see her butt crack and the tattoo on the small of her back. I was quite surprised at her casual dress for a court appearance. I guess I'm an old fuddy duddy!!! Other than that, court hasn't changed much.