Courtroom

The new world inside Philadelphia's courthouse was on display last week in Courtroom 503 as Municipal Judge Charles Hayden presided over a mixed docket of accused burglars, drug dealers, drunken drivers, and other defendants. At 9:15 a.m., Tipstaff David Airey announced to the crowd of witnesses, defendants, and lawyers that the judge would make no final rulings until later that morning. For the time being, he said, no bench warrants for ducking court would be issued against anyone who hadn't shown up. He promised the judge would call the list of cases once more.

M EL GIBSON and Oksana Grigorieva were in an L.A. courtroom yesterday morning for another episode of "I Love Lucia. " Mel arrived for the closed custody hearing about 10 minutes before ex-girlfriend Oksana. The former couple have been sparring for months over financial issues and custody of their infant daughter after reaching a private agreement. It is the first time Mel has appeared in court on the case - although it's sure not the first time he has appeared in court.

The wife and family of slain Philadelphia Police Officer John Pawlowski were dealt another round of pain yesterday when the jury deliberating the fate of his murderer sent word that it was deadlocked about whether he should get a life or death sentence. The news caused Kimberly Pawlowski and others with her to break into tears outside the courtroom, while Annah Abdul Ghaffar, the mother of confessed cop-killer Rasheed Scrugs, shed tears inside the courtroom. Shortly after 3 p.m., the Common Pleas jury entered the courtroom and its forewoman told Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes what had already leaked out. "Your Honor, after intense deliberations, we cannot reach a unanimous decision," the forewoman said.

The detailed description of a toddler kneeling near his deceased mother's head and stroking her hair sent a jolt through a Camden County courtroom Wednesday afternoon. After a brief pause, Assistant Prosecutor Sally Smith went on to describe how, when police found him, the boy, three months shy of his third birthday, had been at his mother's side, a butcher knife nearby. John Whye's father, Troy, 39, is on trial in the murder of his girlfriend, Krystal Skinner, 23, who was killed March 26, 2008, in the couple's Lindenwold apartment in front of their son. During her opening statement, Smith described young John next to his mother, causing Skinner's relatives to burst into tears and rush out of the courtroom.

Shonna McNeil offered the jurors her best reason why they should spare the life of admitted murderer Rasheed Scrugs, her estranged husband and the father of her two boys, ages 5 and 6. "I think every child deserves to have a father and know who that father is," she told the eight women and four men. "The only ones who are really hurt in the end are the children. . . . I want my kids to know who their father is, that he is not a bad person and has a good heart. " For Kimmy Pawlowski, it must have seemed the final insult.

Donte Waters began yesterday as a free man - albeit he was out of jail on bail facing charges of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. By late morning, however, things started to fall apart for the 21-year-old Tacony man. He showed up at 10:40 a.m. for his 9 a.m. domestic-violence trial, and Municipal Judge Gerard A. Kosinski wanted to know why he was late. While being grilled by the judge, Waters said his bus had broken down. The judge didn't buy it. "I don't play with people who are late," Kosinski said during an interview.

Seven months after resigning her Philadelphia judgeship amid complaints about her temperament and courtroom management, Leslie Fleisher returned Monday to the Criminal Justice Center - as a victim of alleged domestic violence. Appearing confused and unsure of herself, Fleisher told a Common Pleas Court jury how her paramour Lewis B. Palmer III, a detective in the District Attorney's Office, throttled her and pushed her into a door in an argument last year over whether he watched too much football.

Howard Brodie, 94, a noted combat artist during World War II who went on to sketch some of the most famous courtroom dramas of the postwar era, including the trials of the Chicago Seven, Charles Manson, and Patty Hearst, died last Sunday at his home near Parkfield, Calif. Mr. Brodie was a staff artist at the San Francisco Chronicle when he enlisted in the Army during World War II. He was sent to the South Pacific as a combat artist and covered the last days of the Guadalcanal campaign.