At the end when they tell you what happened after, the show will say either Superior Court or (I think) District Court - one or the other. In what situations would the case be in Superior Court versus another kind of court? Is one for misdemeanors and one for felonies? Or something else totally. And is that a California thing or is that how all courts are? When my husband got himself in his troubles, even when they were felonies, he just went to the district courthouse in the county he screwed up in. What would the equivalent of a Superior Court be in other states (like Illinois)?
This post is so full of fail that it’s hard to know where to begin.
For one thing, I can assure you that at least some states use “district” for state courts–Colorado for one. Generally speaking, all that “district” means is to distinguish the state-run court system from purely county and/or municipal courts.
Secondly, and far more important, Sgt. Friday was a CITY detective–not Federal. He investigated crimes that were punished under city and state law. He had no federal jurisdiction whatsoever. Thus, he did not investigate federal crimes, and the people that he arrested had no reason to come within hailing distance of federal court.
The entire focus of the show was on the LAPD–their procedures, tactics, etc., and how a big-city police force interacted with people in general. If you’ve ever watched or heard an episode of Dragnet, you clearly paid no attention whatsoever.
As noted above the nomenclature of state courts varies from state to state. One that many get a kick from is New York state’s lowest ‘garden variety’ court - the New York Supreme Court.
And the court of appeals in New York State is the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, while the uppermost state court is… the Court of Appeals! Very odd.
In Ohio, the Court of Common Pleas is the trial-level court, one for each county (some with many judges, in populous areas), although there are also Municipal Courts for many (not all) cities and Mayor’s Courts and County Courts for smaller towns and unincorporated areas, respectively. The Court of Appeals for the [numbered] District is the intermediate appellate court, and the top court (no surprise there) is the Supreme Court of Ohio.
