Courtroom Typist Hates Job, Types ‘I Hate My Job, I Hate My Job’ Instead of Transcript
Ever had one of those days at work where you just wish you could be anywhere else in the world? Daniel Kochanski did, and it just so happened that he had the perfect outlet for his emotions.
Kochanski was a courtroom stenographer, the guy who manually types out everything that is said at a trial, in Manhattan. But one day, instead of performing the rather straightforward task that he had been doing for years, Kochanski just couldn't take it anymore.
Rather than type out what the lawyers, witnesses and judge were saying at at least one high-profile trial, Kochanski simply entered gibberish, seemingly random keystrokes. At one point, inspired perhaps by Jack Nicholson's steadily-going-crazy character from 'The Shining' (see below), he repeatedly typed, "I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job."
"It should have been questions and answers. Instead it was gibberish," a source told the New York Post. "He hit random keys or wrote, 'I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job,' over and over."
Kochanski was fired from in March 2012, and court workers are still digging through all the transcripts he ruined, which could lead to mistrials and have already led to several appeals. Claudia Trupp, who is handling some of those appeals for the Center for Appellate Litigation, said, "I never had a situation where a single court reporter was responsible for so much damage."
Here's an idea of what that damage might look like: