Voices Of Spectators At Officer Porter Trial

As the Officer William Porter trial is about to begin its second week, more spectators are expected to come to court to try to watch 

Seating in Courthouse East is limited, but if you are willing to stand in line, go through a metal detector and get a ticket from a deputy sheriff, you can sit in the courtroom and watch the proceedings up close.

You can also watch the proceedings via closed circuit television in a neighboring courtroom. 

People are coming to court to watch this trial for various reasons. 

Some are activists, like Tessa Hill Aston, who is the president of the Baltimore City NAACP. She has attended the trial every day.

The attorneys for the other five accused officers have all appeared in court at various times to watch this trial.  Like Porter's attorneys, they are under a gag order imposed by Judge Barry Williams, and cannot comment on their cases.

Defense attorney Warren Alperstein, who is not involved in any of these cases, has attended some trial sessions and has provided legal analysis for WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and other media outlets.

Here are a couple of tips if you want to come down to the proceedings.

First, if you want to be in the courtroom at the start of the day, you must be in line by 8 a.m., and awarded a ticket. 

Anyone coming after that, and you can try, will be admitted on a first come first serve basis.

Next turn off your smart phone, or other electronic devices once you get into the courthouse. 

If a phone  goes off in the courtroom, you’ll be ejected from the courtroom and your phone confiscated for the day by sheriff's deputies. 

Trust me, this happened to me Wednesday.  The deputies  are quite serious about this.  You will  get your phone back at the end of the day.

Also if you have to leave the courtroom during the proceedings, you can’t come back in until the judge calls for a break. 

There is an overflow room to watch the proceedings on closed circuit television. 

You can enter and leave as you wish but the cell phone rules are the same for the overflow courtroom as they are for the main courtroom.

I learned my lesson.  I leave my phone in the press room.

Source WBAL