Courtroom clipboards are a courtesy, not a threat

Last December, a Hennepin County judge interrupted his sentencing of a convicted child molester to deliver a rant against WATCH, a Minneapolis court-monitoring organization that keeps a quiet eye on cases of sexual violence and domestic abuse as they wend their way through the Hennepin County courts.

WATCH was founded in 1992 and has trained over 760 volunteers who have monitored more than 61,000 hearings. Its mission is to make the justice system more effective and responsive in handling cases of violence against women and children, and to create a more informed and involved public.

WATCH volunteers, who carry red clipboards when monitoring a hearing, are among the only people in the courtroom with no personal stake in the outcome. They are there as public observers of the justice system. As any WATCH volunteer will tell you, the organization's training emphasizes appropriate courtroom demeanor and respect for the system.

But Judge Jack Nordby doesn't like what he sees. In his December tirade he accused WATCH of using the red clipboard -- an "ingenious device" -- to say to judges, "We are watching you. We do not trust you." He compared the "flashing" of clipboards to signals used by gang members in the courtroom to intimidate witnesses. Curiously, there was not even a WATCH monitor in the courtroom when Judge Nordby erupted -- no clipboard to make him see red -- so the outburst was not only inappropriate, it came out of left field.

WATCH filed a complaint with the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards against Nordby for airing his displeasure with WATCH in his courtroom.

Last week the Board on Judicial Standards responded with a formal complaint against Judge Nordby, citing violations of three judicial canons and nine rules. Nordby has hired attorney Joe Friedberg to fight the charges before a three-person panel rather than accept a public reprimand.

It's up to that panel to render an opinion on whether Judge Nordby's behavior was appropriate. But it's up to me, as the founder of WATCH, to put forth the facts about the origin, as well as the intent, of those red clipboards.

Seventeen years ago, when we were preparing to send our first monitors into the courtroom, we sought the advice of many people in the system, including judges, on how we should proceed. One of their suggestions was that we should carry something that would easily identify us as WATCH monitors, so they would know when we were in the courtroom. The monitors needed something to hold their notes, so why not a clipboard? When we went to make a bulk purchase of clipboards, the selection was limited: DayGlo pink or dark red. I have an aversion to DayGlo anything, so red it was. Yes, it's worked well for us, but an "ingenious device"? Hardly.

The clipboard was meant as a courtesy to courtroom staff. Despite the prompting of many people, including the media, we've never sent an incognito volunteer into a hearing to play a game of "gotcha." If we expect our justice system to be transparent, we should be transparent as well. And after a long career on the bench, Judge Nordby should know as well as anyone that almost everyone in the courtroom is attempting in some way to exert influence, from the penniless young defendant whose family buys him his first suit so he'll look reputable, to the wealthy suburban defendant whose well-dressed friends pack the courtroom so he'll look admirable.

It's the job of the judge to see beyond these things, to maintain proper decorum, to deal with those who disrupt or make threatening gestures, but not to infer what's meant by a red clipboard -- or by a Navy blue blazer. Most judges do just that, and Judge Nordby should too. After all, he's the one who holds the power. WATCH volunteers hold nothing more than a red clipboard.

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Susan Lenfestey is a Minneapolis writer and the founder of WATCH. She is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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