This folder filled room is where files of closed non DUI cases is only one of the rooms where I spent my time at the San Diego City Attorney's Office Criminal Division. When I was in here I was stacked with work I needed to do, taking cases that were a year old and getting them ready to be shipped to court where they’re stored for 3 years. Just in case the case is re-opened and is needed to be taken back to the Attorney’s Office. I was a box and filing machine, after the first week I was able to make a box in under 20 seconds, pretty impressive I know. The only hard part was having to organize the files by the court number from least to greatest, and we’re not talking about 1-2 digit numbers, we’re talking about 7-8 digits. Just imagine, staring at numbers for six hours a day three times a week, a lot of headaches came as a side effect but I was still able to push through it. On the days where I was lucky, I was only needed to find files and just add a sheet of paper for the archive, sometimes that itself was a lot more work then it needed to be because a lot of the files were missing or not where they needed to be and was sent to different floors to try and find them.
This folder filled room is where files of closed non DUI cases is only one of the rooms where I spent my time at the San Diego City Attorney's Office Criminal Division. When I was in here I was stacked with work I needed to do, taking cases that were a year old and getting them ready to be shipped to court where they’re stored for 3 years. Just in case the case is re-opened and is needed to be taken back to the Attorney’s Office. I was a box and filing machine, after the first week I was able to make a box in under 20 seconds, pretty impressive I know. The only hard part was having to organize the files by the court number from least to greatest, and we’re not talking about 1-2 digit numbers, we’re talking about 7-8 digits. Just imagine, staring at numbers for six hours a day three times a week, a lot of headaches came as a side effect but I was still able to push through it. On the days where I was lucky, I was only needed to find files and just add a sheet of paper for the archive, sometimes that itself was a lot more work then it needed to be because a lot of the files were missing or not where they needed to be and was sent to different floors to try and find them.
Probably the biggest project that I participated in during the course of internship, and again it involves a type of filing and sorting. What you are looking at is envelopes filled with evidence, meaning there is either a CD or a Tape containing significant evidence that involves the defendant. My job was to sort out the evidence tapes that were for cases that were closed from the cases that were stilled open. Luckily for me, I was able to use a scanner to help me from having to manually put in the case number, but it doesn't always work out for me because not all of the envelopes had a barcode to scan. I was really grateful that they trusted myself with a job like this, and it turned out to be a couple hours longer than we expected. The cabinet that contained these envelopes was literally overflowing with orange and pink envelopes. By the time I was done and everything was a lot more organized the lady by the window who was in charge of the envelopes was amazed that their were so little envelopes. After everything was said and done we had to tally up all the closed case evidence envelopes and it turned out to be over 300. In all their were over 500 of these envelopes.
This is the product of one week of keeping me in a file room with nothing but music. I made and sorted all of the boxes you see, each of them weighing about 10 pounds each. This project was really boring at times because it just gets repetitive, doing the same thing over and over again. After about a week I was able to filing documents so fast it was practically second nature. For the first week I would check in with my mentor to show that I was at work, and then immediately after disappear into a room for the rest of the day. The worst part about this project was just the length of time you needed to complete it. Before I started this project, internship days seemed like 2 hours, but after the first day of this project I felt that I was stuck in a dim room for about 2 days.
In a brand new building and new environment I was placed in a little cubicle already occupied by these pictures on the wall. The first friends that I met during my internship time, always in my cubicle and also watching the work that I produced. These pictures were more of a gift then they were a surprise, on the first day I was escorted to this cubicle and was immediately apologized to by the supervisor in charge of my tour, and I was quick to say that it was ok. For me whenever I’m in a new kind of space and environment I like to study my surroundings and look at whatever I can that might peak my interest. These pictures were more of a gift, because whenever I would get to work early or just chill in the cubicle for my break I’d always try and guess what they might have done to be in that situation. These pictures also provided some information on how much money, effort, time, and devotion to breaking the law, it also shows that a lot of people who make bad decisions are not always “Sane” and it could potentially provide to be dangers in the future.
Mr. Armenian served as my internship mentor during my time at the San Diego City Attorneys Office, and provided me with a lot of words of wisdom. He is a Saipan immigrant who move to the United States to follow the American dream, and to his extent he his living that dream. He is a first gen college graduate with two degrees, and is in the military reserves, he works for a lot of units at the Attorney's office, the one he’s most proud to work for is the Child Protective Unit, and even though he really loves that job and position, he is still in pursuit for his dream job which is not yet available for job openings. Through my mentor interview he told me a personal quote that will forever stick with me for the rest of my schooling career. “Try and keep a straight moral compass through your life. If you have that, then you should be set.” This resonates with me because it tells us to always stick with your gut feeling and personal morals, try and make the right decision about ninety nine percent of the time and don't make a mistake that will forever ruin your life.