Court proceedings captured on videotape

PAGE 28
WEEK OF DECEMBER 24, 1990
Focus
BUSINESS FIRST
Court proceedings captured on videotape
By DAVID KUNZ
Business First Correspondent
The familiar sight of a court reporter typ­
h1g into a stenography machine during court
proceedings began disappearing six years
ago in Jefferson County, when an auto­
mated video-recording system was put into
use in Jefferson Circuit Court.
. Jefferson County's courts were the first
in the nation to use video as the official court
record, and the video system was developed
by a local company, Jefferson Audio Video
Systems Inc., 13020 Middletown Industrial
Blvd., said company president David
Green.
The system as supplied by Jefferson is
now in 110 courtrooms in 16 states, Green
added.
Laura Stammel, assistant director of the
Administrative Office of State Courts in
Frankfort, Ky., said the video system is used
in 20 of Kentucky's ·120 counties.
Stammel said 43 of the state's 91 circuit
judges use video in at least one location, and
a total of about 45 percent of the entire
state's circuit-court caseload is recorded on
video.
Green said the system is complex, but the
complexity is in the circuit boards and com­
puter chips that control the system's logic.
"It's very simple to operate," Green said.
"We made it painless for the users."
Green said each system includes five
cameras in the courtroom and one in the
judge's chambers. The system uses eight to
10 voice-activated microphones, depend­
ing on the size and layou.t ofthe courtroom,
and two videocassette recorders.
When the microphones pick up a
speaker's. voice, the signal is fed to an
audio-video mixer that contains the circuit
boards which control the system. Then, the
camera covering that zone automatically
switches to the person who's speaking,
Green said.
He said the microphones are strategically
placed throughout the courtroom and are
sensitive enough to pick up the voices of the
attorneys even when they speak while walk­
ing around the courtroom.
Green said the microphones pick up
voices from six to 10 feet away and auto­
matically ail.just for the sound level of the
speaker. That way even someone with a low
voice will be heard, he added.
The system uses VHS tapes and records
up to six hours on a tape, long enough for
most court-related proceedings, according
. to Green.
He said usually two tapes are made, one
for the record and one for the judge's files.
"Some states are making four record-
ings," Green said, "two for the court and
two for the attorneys."
Stammel said the video system was so in­
novative that the state was awarded a
$100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation
and the John F. Kennedy School ofGovern­
ment at Harvard University.
Stammel said the university and founda­
tion give 10 grants of $100,000 every year
to state and local governments for innova­
tive programs.
There are usually about 1,000 applicants
yearly for the 10 grants, Stammel said.
She said the grant was used to upgrade
the equipment and to equip the appellate
judges with video systems.
Stammel said her office figured that the
video systems generally pay for themselves
in two to two-and-a-half years by what is
saved on expense of court reporters.
In the 1984 fiscal year, the last year court
reporters were used alone to record the
COurfrecord, the State Spent $2,056,070 for
the reporters' salaries and equipment,
Stammel said.
. She _said th�y est_imated that_today, taking
mto account mflauon, salary increases and
other costs, the_ bill _ for court rep?rters
�ould be $1 million higher than what 1s bemg spent.
. Stammel _said the state spent $1,64_3,389
1� the last f1� cal year for a combmauon of
vtdeo rec�rding �d court reporters_.
Thus, vtdeotap�g court proceedings has
proved cost effecuve. But .what about the
impact on court operations and procedures?
Jefferson Circuit Judge Ken Corey said
the vidt:o systems counter the two biggest
complamts about the court system---eosts
and delays..
"This system effectively negates both,"
Corey said. "It's the greatest thing that hap- ,
pened to the courts since the typ ewriter and·
copy machine.
"And in 10 years it will be as common as
word processors _and copiers are now," he
added.
Corey saidjudges are no longerrestricted
by a court reporter's schedule now that the
video system is in place. He can hold hearings "'.henever necessary and no longer
must wait for. a court reporter to be
available.
"It's a lot cheaper for the litigants, too,"
Corey said.
.
The lawyers can have a copy of the tape
the next day for only $15. Under the old systern, it could take months before a copy ofa
transcript was available, at a cost of several
hundred dollars, Corey said.
He said a court reporter and video were
used in tandem when the system was intro-,
Business Fir:'.t photo
by Ron BJ1h
Jefferson Circuit Judge Ken Corey gained appreciation for the video system used in his
courtroom. There are fewer delays now, he said, since scheduling a court reporter is not a factor.
duced, and it was interesting· to compare resuits ofthe two.
· Corey said the court reporter sometimes
misheard words or didn't pick up the correct
word from shorthand notes, so some words
were different on the transcript than what
was on the videotape.
''.There was nothing that would have
changed the outcome of the case, but there
were differences," Corey said.
He said there is a definite advantage to
the video when it comes to handling
appeals.
"It gives the feeling of real life. It's the
difference between seeing and hearing vs.
being told," Corey said.
Jefferson Circuit Judge Martin Johnstone
agreed with Corey's appraisal of the video
system.
"It's been tremendous," Johnstone said.
He said the system gives judges more
flexibility in conducting trials and hearings,
and there have been very few mechanical
glitches.
"I haven't had to interrupt one hearing or
trial since 1985 because of some technical
problem,'' Johnstone said.
Jefferson Circuit Judge Earl O'Bannon
said he resisted the video system at first, but
his opinion has turned around completely
since the system has been operating.
"I like it now," O'Bannon said. "I find
J'rh now putting more things on the record
than I used to. To go on the record you just
have to throw the tape in and turn it on."
He said one feature that was extremely
helpful, especially when children testify in
his chambers during child custody cases, is
a switch that allows him to cut offthe video
picture on the monitor but still tape the
testimony.
O'Bannon said children may be intimi­
dated when they see that they are being recorded, so he turns the screen off.
"The kid isn't aware of the recording and
is more open," O'Bannon said.
He said another feature he uses fre­
quently is a switch that locks the camera on
one particular location.
"I can lock it on a witness while he. testifies and keep it on him even when an attorney asks a question," O'Bannon said."That
way the camera won't be switching back
and forth between speakers."
O'Bannon said he has heard complaints
from appellate attorneys who sometimes
have difficulty dealing with tapes rather
than written transcripts.
"A transcript ofa six-day trial means they
have six days of television to look at;"
O'Bannon said;-,
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney·
Glenda Bradshaw also had high praise for
the video-recording system.
"As a trial-level practicing attorney, I
think they're great," Bradshaw said.
She said attorneys no longer have to wait
for a court reporter to be available and don't
have to wait for a transcript.
"You can just go right over and get a copy
of the tape to review," Bradshaw said.
"There used to be a problem getting
transcripts.
"In the old days,sentencings o�ten had t?
. be contmued because the transcnpt wasn t
ready. We don't have that problem now."
Bradshaw said the video captures much
more of the atmospher': of the proceeding
than could ever be realized from a
trans
"It's been very beneficial," she said.
Some active participants in the court sys­
tem are not, fans of the video system,
however.
Defense attorneys. Geoffrey Morris and
Robert Haddad both..said the video system
. makes appeals more .difficult.
· .. , "ltdoesn't cbst.ihelitigants as much fora
transcript, but it takes more time to review
the tapes for the appellate process," Morris
said.
He said the system is helpful when video­
taping depositions, and he has found that
jurors often watch. videotaped testimony
more closely than if someone is testifying in
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WEEK OF DECEMBER 24, 1990
PAGE29
Focus··
·scribe·a record from the video than it would ville that was installed in October 1988.
"The computer-aided system allows for
if a court reporter was present at the hearing,
for several reasons.
real-time transcription," Kogut said. "The
Continued from preceding page
If a reporter was present in person, she judge and both attorneys have monitors and
person, but "because of the appeal feature, I could look at the witness, or whoever was the record scrolls across them as the repor­
don't like it"
speaking, and concentrate on what was said. ter records it."
Haddad was more critical of the system She could also ask them to relleat something
Kogut said "computer-aided real-time
than Morris.
transcription" means that as the court repor­
she didn't hear, Kogut said.
"I think it's a distraction," Haddad said. · She added that when making a transcrip­ ter types the encoded conversation symbols
"And if a case has to be appealed, the attor­ tion from video tape, she often must stop into a stenography machine, the data is
neys have ·to prepare tile appeal by going the tape and play it back to catch all of what
through the tapes."
was said. Kogut said tha( sometimes, it is
Haddad also said he believes the tran­ also difficult to differentiate between
Video systems have
scripts were more accurate under the old speakers on a videotape when a group
changed how court
court-reporter system.
gathers at the bench for a conference, for ex­
records are kept.
Laura Kogut, a partner in the McLendon­ ample, and many times words are "just
Kogut Reporting Service and a past presi­ inaudible."
Judges like the system,
dent of the Kentucky Court Reporters Asso­
It's also three times more expensive, she
but some attorneys
ciation, understands appellate attorneys' noted.
dislike dealing with
dislike of the video system.
She said the state may have saved money
"We get some requests to transcribe up front by eliminating salaried court repor­
video transcripts ..
video records, and it's very difficult," Ko­ ters, but it's been a trade-offwith higher at­
gut said. "It's crucial to concentrate on the torneys' fees on the back end. So, Kogut
witness' stand, but the cameras bounce said, appellate attorneys end up passing to analyzed by a computer, translated to Engaround when someone coughs or rustles their clients the higher costs of a written lish and immediately displayed on televi·transcription from a court reporter who sion monitors.
paper.
"The human ear can screen out extra­ transcribed from a video record.
Kogut said a transcript can be irnmedineous noise, but the video doesn't," she
Kogut said the Kentucky Court Reporters ately printed out or stored on a computer
added.
Association funded a computer-aided sys­ , disk.
Kogut said it takes much longer to tran- tem in Boyle County Circuit Court in DanThe system in Danville was manufactured by Xscribe Corp. in San Diego, Calif.,
and costs between $25,000 and $30,000,
·
Kogut said.
She said the computer-aided system is
being used in courts in Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit and Chicago.
Kogut said the optimum record-keeping
method probably would be a combination of
both video and computer-aided systems.
But getting funds for both would be un-.
likely, she added.
. Stammel said that a combination of video
and printed transcripts would be idea( but ..
the cost at this time is prohibitive.
Green said the video system costs about
$63,000 per courtroom, which includes 600
tapes and a maintenance contract
"We go in three or four times a year for
maintenance and to make sure everything is
running correctly," Green said.
He said the cameras are made by Sony
and the cost including installation is $1,750
each. The microphones are manufactu!"ed
by the Crown Corp. and run $350 apiece
installed.
Green said the cameras were modified to
better fit the environment and to improve
their performance.
Jefferson Audio Video technicians also
have designed an improved microphone,
currently being manufactured for them by
·
another company.
Also, his company recently started using
high-fidelity VHS, which improved I.he
audio recording considerably.
He said the newer microphone costs
about the same as the old one and will be
available next month. The microphones
will be installed as part of a general updating process, Green added.
He said the newly designed microphones
also are more sensitive and will be better
able to differentiate between speakers.
. "Courtrooms are not conducive to clear
conversation," Green said. "But the -system
can compensate for different voice
· Green said the system's performance is
continually evaluated and improvements in
circuitry and hardware are added as they become available in order to get the best per­
formance possible.
·: Green said he has35employees atJeffer­
son and twoofthem areassignedfulltime to
research and development. Jefferson also
sells. and services video and audio equip­
ment to production companies.