You never hear a little kid say, “When I grow up, I wanna be a court reporter!” It seems like a hellishly thankless job, transcribing a bunch of lawyers arguing over whether people should go to jail. Enough to drive a person bonkers.
But if you hate your job this much, and your behavior can have such dire consequences, you should quit or go to jail yourself.
Rebecca Rosenberg, Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding, NY Post:
An alcoholic Manhattan court stenographer went rogue, channeling his inner “Shining” during a high-profile criminal trial and repeatedly typing, “I hate my job, I hate my job” instead of the trial dialogue, sources told The Post.
The bizarre antics by Daniel Kochanski, who has since been fired, wreaked havoc on some 30 Manhattan court cases, sources said, and now officials are scrambling to repair the damage…
By phone Wednesday, Kochanski denied screwing up his transcripts.
“I never typed gibberish. I always did my job 100 percent. I was let go because of substance abuse,” he said.
That’s the way, Danny. Don’t let ’em tell you what you wrote down for everybody to see! A key component of recovery from substance abuse is lowering your defense mechanisms and accepting reality, and you’ve clearly done that.
Kochanski’s silliness goes back to at least 2010, but he wasn’t fired until 2012. There was nobody to check his work for two whole years? Everybody needs a proofreader.
Maybe somebody tried, and it didn’t go so well…