During the second week of April I visited the Hillsborough County Court house. I was able to take in the surrounding action, search documents for my profile (Ronda Storms) and sit in trial proceedings.
One of the first things I took note of at the courthouse was how empty it was. I showed up around ten a.m., thinking that by mid-morning all of the family/child support and traffic violation lines would be packed. I was wrong, and at least now I know when to recommend people to go pay their tickets.
After walking around the place I saw the people serving jury duty, they sure did look pale and haggard. With those looks, all I could think about was ways to get out of jury duty … I’m pretty sure being a student or claiming a medical profession works. Throughout my walk, I also observed that there were very few attorneys and bailiffs walking around. Wasn’t sure if that had to do with the proceedings of the day, just the lack of business in the courts or because of what Pat Frank recently said, stating that she may have to start cutting her staff.
Once my tour was over I went ahead and visited the case file viewing area. Here, I was able to look up Ronda Storms case action and one case I was interested in particularly. Storms, a Republican conservative, has fought quite hard on cases dealing with pornography and gay rights and her case against Joe Redner, owner of the well-known Tampa strip club Mons Venus, was the case I was keying in on. I also searched the felony section of the Clerk of Courts department and found nothing on Storms.
Lastly, I was able to sit in during four court proceedings. What I found interesting, although these are minor crimes, was that more women were being tried for drug trafficking then the men in the room. As a whole, there were probably 15 men and 15 women being tried. Of the four cases I saw before “break,” three of them had to do with women carrying, selling or distributing marijuana. This appeared odd to me, honestly, the world typically see’s a gangster-looking African American or a wealthy-cocky Caucasian kid as a drug trafficker, not women in their mid-20’s who have some looks. The fourth case actually rattled me. An individual, who previously had been arrested for carrying an illegal firearm and being an accomplice in a murder, was being tried for armed robbery. The fact that I was sitting in the same courtroom as a “killer” amazed me. It just put it into perspective, that people who are committing these crazy acts of violence walk the same streets and drive their cars the same place we do.
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