Disgruntled Stenographer Littered Dozens of Trial Records With Gibberish

Court stenographer Daniel Kochanski was dissatisfied with his job, as evidenced in some 30 trials whose proceeding he failed to register intact, instead typing gibberish or at times entering “I hate my job, I hate my job” repeatedly into the record instead of the trial dialogue. Unsurprisingly, Kochanski was fired, and now courts are faced with the challenge of attempting to repair the damage, including by holding “reconstructive hearings.”  Trials thrown into jeopardy by the botched records include a high-profile mortgage-fraud case of one Aaron Hand, who was also convicted of hiring a hit-man to take out a witness against him.

People involved in the cases are now being asked to testify about what they recall from the trials. “I never had a situation where a single court reporter was responsible for so much damage,” Claudia Trupp, of the Center for Appellate Litigation, told the New York Post.