work in rants

I work as an interpreter in the grand jury - a step before the jury we see on television and in the movies.

Usually I interpret for the "complaining witness" or another witness. Once in a while I have to interpret for the defendant. The job of the prosecutor at this stage is to trip the person up, get the person to say something different from what was said before (or at least so it seems to me).

I hate this part of the job. Usually the prosecutor acts as if nothing the defendant says makes any sense. The ADA CANNOT be that "stupid". When fights happen, usually in the middle of the night, everything happens very fast and it's VERY difficult to say why you did one thing or another or why you didn't just back off when a person seemed excessively rowdy.

The defendant gets frustrated, as do the ADA and myself. I am going to have to talk with the ADA from today. One thing I learned while teaching special needs students: if the answer you're getting is NOT the one you wanted/expected... you HAVE to change the question!!