Judge: 'Almost like being on reality TV'

LEBANON – You know Judge Judy, now meet Judge Oda.

This Warren County Common Pleas judge isn't coming to a television near you, but soon you'll be able to watch his courtroom live from your computer.

When that happens, Donald Oda will be the first judge in the region and one of only a handful in Ohio to stream proceedings online to the public.

"Our court is open to the public," said Bill Mullins, Oda's bailiff. "Anybody can come in and watch what is happening, so why not put it out there?"

Oda recently gave attorneys in the county's bar association access to a live feed from his courtroom in Lebanon. Log in, and they can watch anywhere there is Wi-Fi.

The user name and password – "public" – are a hint at the judge's intentions.

"Courtrooms are public and what goes on there should be as accessible to the public as we can make it," Oda told The Enquirer.

It's hard to put an exact number on it, but experts say there are not many trial judges nationwide who stream court proceedings.

Deborah Smith, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts, said live streaming is not typically done because of issues with jurors, victims and minors.

She said appeals courts regularly stream proceedings because they feature only attorneys, but live streaming is "not common in trial court at all." And most streamed trials are initiated by news media requests, Smith said.

The Ohio Supreme Court streams oral arguments, but spokesman Bret Crow struggled to think of more than two or three other courts in the state that do what Oda is planning.

One who does is Gayle Williams-Byers, a municipal judge in South Euclid, a city about 10 miles from downtown Cleveland. As many as 300 people watched a trial in her courtroom last year.

It's been so successful, city councilman Ed Icove told The Enquirer, officials "piggybacked" off the judge and began live streaming their council meetings. City officials said as many as 23 people have watched a council meeting.

Typically, anywhere from six to eight people watch the stream. That doesn't sound like a lot, but Icove said that essentially doubles the audience for meetings.

He called it a "major asset" for the city, which has a population of about 20,000.

"It became contagious. The community demanded more," said Williams-Byers. "It's almost like being on reality TV. Everything that happens is really happening."

A former county prosecutor, she knows courtrooms are an intimidating place for defendants.

"We speak a whole language that most people don't even understand. To most, I sound like Charlie Brown's teacher – and I get it," the judge said.

"I'm speaking Lithuanian to them. They don't know anything about the law or legalese I am talking about. My job is to distill it, but we aren't always meeting the mark."

Williams-Byers keeps coming back to the word "power." In the end, she believes that is what live streaming gives the public.

"If you are a defendant and have never been to my courtroom before then you couldn't pick me out of a two-man lineup – even when the other person (in the lineup) is a man," she said.

"Imagine the power then to see me at work before (your court date). That's a powerful perspective."

Williams-Byers says the public has become apathetic about government in all its forms. Live streaming is a potential solution.

"We have to give (people) more access, and give them practical access," the judge said. "(By live streaming), you are actually displaying government in action."

Above the jury box in Warren County, a white camera documents justice. Just last year, though, it could have been a symbol for the apathy Williams-Byers described.

That's when The Enquirer reported Prosecutor David Fornshell had a feed from multiple courtrooms to his office some defense attorneys didn't know about.

Fornshell maintains he did nothing wrong, and called news coverage of the situation nonsense. But it wasn't all bad.

"The best thing to come out of this is it has increased the impetus to give the public access to that courtroom, and that is a good thing," the prosecutor said.

In a letter to the bar association about his plans to give the public online access, Oda said no attorneys who tested the system recently reported they overheard anything they shouldn't have.

"My position throughout the entire controversy was consistent: Anyone who wants to watch court proceedings should be able to," the judge said.

Oda, who graduated from Ohio State with a journalism degree, said he has wanted to live stream court since he became a county judge about 10 years ago.

He hopes to make that a reality by the end of the year.