The Steno Avenger: Court Reporter Helps To Disarm Defendant In Courtroom Melee
Posted on May 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am, by adminWell, on top of the already stressful job of maintaining the record, you can now add crime fighting duties to the job description at least for one court reporter in federal court in the state of New York. Ron Tolkin was preparing to report the sentencing of one Victor Wright, a drug dealer who was about to be sentenced to two life sentences for drug trafficking, when the defendant lunged for the prosecutor in the case.
Here’s how the events went down according to the New York Post.
He was going to slash her throat,” said defense lawyer Harry Batchelder, who, along with a court reporter and two marshals, slammed Victor Wright, 27, to the ground and grabbed an inch-long razor blade from him.
Wright was being led into the courtroom to be hit with two life sentences for his role in a ruthless drug-trafficking crew when he lunged at prosecutor Carolyn Pokorny, 38, grabbing her by the throat and pulling her to the ground as she screamed in terror.
“He came into the courtroom to attack her,” said Eugene Corcoran, head of the Marshals Service in Brooklyn.
As if that weren’t dramatic enough, the New York Post has a quote of Mr. Tolkin issuing a challenge to the defendant.
“Why don’t you try me instead of her?” stenographer Ron Tolkin shouted at the cowardly criminal as he leaped on Wright, before the group fell to the ground in a heap.
As for the defendant, he will probably face new charges for his cowardly act and will now be known for getting his ass kicked by his own defense attorney and the court reporter who not only happen to be Vietnam veterans but who are also considerably older than the defendant. Harry Batchelder, the defense attorney, is 72 and Ron Tolkin, the court reporter, is 60.
“Thank God Harry and Ron were there,” said Judge Frederic Block’s courtroom deputy, Mike Innelli
May 20th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Hurray for Harry Betchelder and Ron Tolkin! Endangering their own lives to save another….WOW! Great article. Thanks for posting this, COCRA!
May 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Wow, great article. Hurray for that reporter for getting involved. He’s a hero for sure!!
We had a horrible fight in our holding cell last week. I was facing the holding cell’s door. It was pretty disturbing. Almost every available person in the courtroom jumped in to help. The Bailiff thought she had called for help, but apparently, it didn’t go through. Thank goodness the Clerk hit the panic button. (I asked her afterwards to show me where the button was located. It’s probably a good idea for all of us to know where the panic buttons are.)
As society gets more violent, I suppose we will be experiencing more events such as these in the future. Pretty sad.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
The Sheriff’s Assn should hear about this. They’re in Sacramento defending Court Security in the Legislature. The LAO Report suggesting ER also recommended using private security for court proceedings instead of our armed sheriff’s officers.