Courts beat is fun, even if it’s on a trial basis

By Percy Ednalino
Courts Reporter
The Bakersfield Californian

Posted: June 21, 2002

I've seen some strange stuff in the months I've been a general-assignment reporter for The Bakersfield Californian, which happens to be my hometown newspaper. The strange stuff is one of the reasons I enjoy coming to work each morning. Watch, I'm going to write a man-bites-dog type of story before the year is over.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to write a story about a 93-year-old woman who died after she fell out of her car and got run over by it. Neighbors called the police after they saw her car doing circles in the street with her trying to hang onto the steering wheel. The car was a 1955 Mercury Montclair, and it was her prized possession. She bought the car new and it was in great condition up to the day she died. So was this lady, who friends said was caught climbing trees in her back yard last summer because she wanted to trim some branches.

Then there was the story about this tiny grocery store in a town east of Bakersfield called Twin Oaks. The store is the only place to get groceries in town, and it's closing down. It's also considered a hub of news and gossip for the Twin Oaks community. The store has a Web site (www.twinoaksgeneralstore.com) that I checked out for background information. As I was looking through the site, I saw a weird classified ad tucked between a community calendar listing and the weather report.

Here's the ad, taken directly from the site:

"Used mattress king size. Like new. Has unusual stain in shape of Vietnam on one side; Channel Islands on reverse (minus Anacapa). Faint urine smell. $400 ..."

Some weeks I dislike working at my hometown paper. Other weeks, there's no other place I'd rather be.

Within four months of my arrival at The Bakersfield Californian, I've gone from being a general-assignment writer to covering one of the newspaper's more demanding and prestigious beats, the courts. The first few weeks on the beat were a challenge because my knowledge of courtrooms previously was shaped through episodes of "Law & Order" and "The Practice," along with any films that feature trials in their plots.

The courts beat is slowly growing on me, although I realize that parts of the gig can only be developed through experience.

One trial I'm covering involves a murder suspect who was interviewed by Bakersfield police but reportedly was not read his Miranda rights before detectives got a confession from him. Attorneys on both sides tried to close parts of the proceedings while I was on vacation, but thankfully the reporter who covered for me was able to get our newspaper's attorney to keep the courtroom open. If I had been on the job that day, I probably would have panicked and wouldn't have known what to do.

I'm also discovering that the beat allows for some truly interesting stories. Another trial I'm covering involves a pastor who is accused by the Kern County grand jury of pocketing thousands of tax dollars that were meant for his church. The pastor also is a councilman in Arvin, a community near Bakersfield, so Arvin residents and city officials are closely watching the trial.

Arvin's government has led to a lot of juicy stories for our reporters: The police chief also is charged with embezzlement, the city manager was forced out of office, and the mayor is generally disliked by the rest of the city council. During one day of the trial, a city council member who attended the trial kept switching his seat in the gallery because he didn't want to sit next to the mayor. I weaved the chair-switching drama into my story, since it illustrated just how heated the political situation was in that community.

I've had to cover the murder and embezzlement trials simultaneously, and it isn't easy. But somehow I've flat-out crushed my competition from the television stations -- or so my colleagues tell me. I prefer to be humble about my work, but it's flattering to hear I'm doing OK on the beat.

Officially, the courts beat is mine on an interim basis and the job is posted on journalismjobs.com if anyone is interested. I'd gladly relinquish the beat to a better and more experienced reporter, especially if it results in a shot at covering film or television instead. In the meantime I'll keep the gig, especially since I dream these days of having a judge yell at me and tell me that I'm out of order so I can show off my best Al Pacino impersonation, "You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!"

This is fun!

Percy Ednalino was a 1996, 1998 and 1999 Scholar. Reach him at percy1138@hotmail.com.

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