story3305.xml

story3305.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

On 9/11/01, I was in court in Naples. I had just stepped in to Judge Turner's courtroom and he had just taken the bench late and he said that 2 planes had hit the WTC. I went next door to the Courtroom of Judge Murphy and told a bailiff who told the Judge. We quickly finished with the Court's business and he invited us all back to his chambers to watch tv to see what was going on. There was the judge, several public defenders, state attorneys, myself, the clerk and court reporter. We watched in horror as the towers collapsed. Judge Murphy instructed the jury clerk to release the jurors because he would not be holding court and that the jurors needed to be able to get home. One of the public defenders told how her parents were scheduled to fly home from the northeast that morning and then we learned of the closing of the airports. Judge Murphy talked of how he may be called back to active duty as he still serves in the reserves (he had been called to active duty in the Persian Gulf War). Ultimately we left the judges chamber and I started back to my office and called my assistant Lisa and told her what happened, as we don't have TV in the office she had no idea. I picked up Lisa and we went to my sisters house and stayed glued to the TV. I called the kids school to check on them and was told that the teachers had been instructed not to turn on the tv's or to talk about it in front of the children. I as most Americans spent the next days and weeks glued to the TV and newspaper for information.