In Court Today

I went to Santa Cruz Superior Court to see if they would arraign Michael McClish today. It was a very cold, gray day--the Superior Court building is also gray, so the whole atmosphere was that of coldness and mutedness. The metal detector went off when someone ahead of me walked through it, and the sheriffs couldn't turn it off--so it beeped for what seemed ages. While waiting outside Department 7, I noticed a man outside with long gray hair; he wore a baggy suit and was sweeping the sidewalk with total concentration.

I thought there would be a crowd in the courtroom, but there were just a few people, including a cameraman. I walked in and there was McClish, sitting in the back of the prisoner dock; he wore a bright orange jumpsuit and was shackled. I have not seen him since just before Asha Veil died. He looked thinner, with more gray in his hair, his face a lot more angular.

The unnerving thing was that McClish would not stop staring at me--perhaps he was only staring at the little group of people from the San Lorenzo Valley, or the cameraman (eventually a second cameraman entered the courtroon)--but he gave the impression of staring right at me, and in a way that was hard to read--a combination of anger and severe stress. At one point, he looked down at his shackled hands.

MClish's case went first; I could barely hear the attorneys, so I am glad that there was an article posted this morning (please click on the link for the full story). McClish refrained from entering a plea; I heard something about attorneys and, after reading the Sentinel story, discovered that McClish needs to be appointed a lawyer.
He will also be held without bail, which is appropriate, since he is already serving time for rape, and he is also being charged with two homicides (with the "special circumstances" of committing a double murder, which makes him eligible for the death penalty). He will return to court May 22nd.

Eventually, McClish was led out of the courtroom, and several people, including myself, got up and left.

Seeing McClish was disturbing, but the amount of domestic violence cases being heard that day was also disturbing. One has to wonder how domestic violence related to the McClish case, beyond the rape and murder charges.

So, the process of justice has begun, in its gradual way.