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ON THE ROAD AGAIN

LINDA CONNER LAMBECK lclambeck@ctpost.com
Connecticut Post

The right of police, already invited into an apartment, to enter a murder suspect's bedroom might have seemed clear cut until Attorney Benjamin Buckley put it in terms the audience could understand.

"Wonder if it was parents entering your bedroom without permission?" Buckley told some 250 observers, mostly high school and college students, seated on bleachers in the Housatonic Community College Performing Arts Center in Bridgeport on Tuesday.

A murmur rose among the audience, there to witness the Connecticut Supreme Court hear two cases — one criminal, the other civil.

Not only was the "Supreme Court on Tour," a chance for observers to learn more about Fourth Amendment rights and terms like "exigent circumstances" — a state requiring immediate action — but it also taught them there's more to courtroom drama than sound bites and closeups.

"This is far more valuable than a classroom discussion or the nonrealistic view of the courtroom that they get on television," said Samantha Mannion, head of the criminal justice program at Housatonic.

In addition to many of her students — some assigned to write opinions of the cases heard — students from Bridgeport's Bridge Academy and Harding High School in and Fairfield Ludlowe High School attended.

"I've brought 18 future lawyers," joked Rep. Felipe Reinoso, D-Bridgeport, a Bridge Academy teacher, as his students lined up to pass through a metal detector.

Fred Bellaria, a teacher of a government and politics class at Fairfield Ludlowe, called it a unique chance to show his students matters of law debated.

This was the 25th time the court has taken its show on the road since 1986 and just the third time it has convened in Bridgeport. The performing arts space at Housatonic was transformed into a courtroom, complete with black curtains, a bench and silent anticipation before the robed justices filed in.

Housatonic was chosen at the suggestion of Justice Joette Katz, who is from Fairfield, said Chief Justice William J. Sullivan.

Speaking to reporters in between the cases, Sullivan said the road trip is intended to get more students interested in the law and the justice system. "Hopefully, a few will take it up as a career. It's also intended to give them an idea how the appellant process works," he said.

Legal arguments in the first case, State vs. Jose Aviles, took a full 90 minutes to unfold in front of five of the seven justices, who took turns scribbling notes and asking questions.

While some students struggled to stay focused during the proceedings, others couldn't wait to weigh-in at the end of the session on the merits of whether a lower court was correct in denying a motion to suppress the confession of a murder suspect, given to police who discovered him in the bedroom of his girlfriend's apartment.

Sarah Flatto, 17, a high school senior and daughter of Fairfield First Selectman Kenneth Flatto, left convinced the state proved its arguments. Randy Young, 17, a Harding senior, isn't sure how he'd decide but thought the defendant had a pretty good attorney.

Attorney James Streeto, a public defender, said police should have obtained a warrant before entering the apartment. State's Attorney Terence D Mariani Jr. countered that police were conducting a proper investigation when they spotted the suspect through an open door and had no choice but to confront him. Stopping to get a warrant, he said, could have put others in danger and given the suspect a chance to escape.

The second case, Blakeslee vs. Platt Bros., asked the court to decide if a lower court was right in determining a man's dislocated shoulders — caused by co-workers giving the man first aid after he suffered a seizure at work — were ineligible as a workers' compensation claim.

Attorney James Brennan, argued the ill-advised attempt at restraint was compensable in the same way an injury caused by a man falling and hitting his head on a cement floor would be. Jennifer Hock, the opposing attorney, argued co-workers would fear coming to the aid of people in distress and employers would stop hiring disabled people if the claim were compensable.

"I think the lady lawyer offered a more organized point of view," surmised Cassius Davis, 42, a nursing major at Housatonic, after the proceedings.

That said, Davis would still have sided with the injured man, figuring the employer is liable no matter what.

Danielle Kanlong, 27, an HCC criminal justice student, who peppered lawyers from both cases with questions, said the proceedings made her want to be a lawyer that much more. "It's great to see the court in action," she said.