Superhero With a Stenograph
March 30th, 2008
COMING out of Ron Tolkin’s digital recorder, the one he keeps in his left front pocket while he transcribes proceedings as a court reporter in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the noises are hard to distinguish: some rustling of papers, lawyers making small talk, and then the sounds of shouting, struggling and chaos.
It all lasts less than two minutes, start to finish. It is the sound of Victor Wright, of Baltimore, convicted on federal drug charges and facing a mandatory life sentence, lunging at the assistant United States attorney, Carolyn Pokorny, and choking her, then being wrestled into submission by two federal marshals, his 72-year-old defense lawyer, another prosecutor and Mr. Tolkin.
Mr. Tolkin, 60, who can be heard muttering indignant, Brooklyn-accented profanity at Mr. Wright throughout the altercation, was in all the papers the next day for his heroics, along with word from investigators that Mr. Wright had smuggled a razor into the courtroom.
Mr. Tolkin got a rousing ovation when he walked into the courthouse cafeteria. And more than a week after the attack, the excitement still had not worn off, even as Mr. Tolkin was back at work with his Stenograph, typing the mundane details of an arraignment.
He greeted a young prosecutor, double-checked his name and then slipped him a transcript of the scuffle, which he had typed himself, from the recording. “Excuse my language,” Mr. Tolkin said quietly as he handed over the document.
The things he said to Mr. Wright have been bothering him, so he always apologizes when he shows people the transcript. “I’m listening to it, and I said, ‘This doesn’t sound like me,’ ” he explained. “It’s my voice, but it’s not things I would say.”
**Offensive language below:
His wife and even his ex-wife told him the same thing: “Ron, you don’t talk like that,” he repeated.In truth, there is a part of the incident Mr. Tolkin does not remember. He remembers the anger on Mr. Wright’s face and the surprise on Ms. Pokorny’s, remembers jumping up from his chair as it tipped over backward, and remembers, moments later, being on the ground with Mr. Wright, restraining his left arm.
It has been a lot to absorb.
“I don’t deal with this every day,” Mr. Tolkin said. “I’m a court reporter. I sit there and take words, that’s what I do. I make transcripts.”
He has done other things in his life, though. He grew up in Marine Park, Brooklyn, fought in Vietnam and later worked for five years as a constable in Babylon, Long Island, where he lives.
He has a son and a daughter from his first marriage, two stepsons from his second and six grandchildren, all under 6. Last year doctors told him that he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which he said stemmed from exposure to Agent Orange. The doctors told him he had many years to live.
None of this was going through Mr. Tolkin’s mind that day in the courtroom, but there was this: Ms. Pokorny, the prosecutor, is 38, about his daughter’s age, and they have known each other for years. Many years ago, when he was a part-time court reporter and she was a law clerk, they and other members of the court staff sometimes ate lunch together. “They all made me feel like I was part of the court family,” he said.
The ovations in the cafeteria are over, but Mr. Tolkin still accepts congratulations — “You’re a superhero, Ronnie”; “You’re a good guy to know!” — with a proud smile, though he brushes off talk of heroism, saying he did only what was natural, given his law enforcement background.
Down the hall from his office, Gene Rudolph, the chief court reporter, said some of the attention had spilled over to him.
“I was walking in the hall, somebody applauded me,” Mr. Rudolph said with a laugh. “I mean, who am I? They said, ‘For your staff.’ ”
Court reporters usually strive to be unobtrusive, he said, but Mr. Tolkin deserves every bit of praise. “It would be nice to say, ‘I’d do what Ron did,’ ” Mr. Rudolph said. “But Ron doesn’t have to say, ‘I would do it.’ He did it.”
Strange as all the attention can be, Mr. Rudolph said: “He’s enjoying the moment. Because who in their lifetime gets a moment like this?”