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New tech places District Court among nation's best
Guam is now home to one of the most advanced courtrooms in the nation. Nearly $2 million was spent to design, construct and outfit the new magistrate's courtroom, a new grand jury room, and four attorney/witness suites. For the last three years, District Court Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan has been sharing this fourth floor courtroom with other judges, but on Wednesday that will all change with the unveiling of a new Magistrate's Courtroom.
"Having this courtroom makes things more convenient for everybody, the public in general and also the judges that use the courts," his honor said. The magistrate judge assists the district court judge with various court matters and often handles pre-trial issues. Manibusan, who is one of 500 magistrate judge's across the country, says the federal courts have gotten into the digital age, using technology to assist with cases. The new facility boasts more than a quarter-million dollars worth of state of the art technology from plasma TVs, jury monitors, videoconferencing, and a touch screen control system, just to name a few.
Said Manibusan, "We've spent a lot of money on our jurors. We've got one monitor per every two jurors and that's because the cases that come into this courtroom in the 21st Century have a lot of digital evidence, digital audio, digital multimedia. We need to find some efficient way to give that to the jurors."
District court information systems manager Charles White says the courtroom is also equipped with a digital evidence presentation system that allows everyone from the judge, attorneys, defendant, and the public to view documents and evidence. The magistrate's courtroom also boasts some features that are not available in the main court upstairs, specifically designed to cater to jurors and defendants. He described such components, saying, "We have infrared emitters up there for assisted listening for our jurors and it double serves as an interpreter system. We have a lot of defendants who come in here and don't speak English, and they have a right to know what's going on in the courtroom, so we thought of that."
The court room also includes a videoconferencing system that not only saves thousands of dollars, but allows people from all over the nation to participate in court hearings locally. "All they do is they dial in, and we conduct our proceedings, they're asking questions from the witnesses, and participate in that process," proudly explained Manibusan. White also noted that the system is fully engineered according to U.S. court design guide, saying, "it's one of the best in the country right now."
A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for Wednesday morning at 11 in the District Court.
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