It’s Friday and you’re already counting down the hours until you get to scarper out of the office and go drinking/intense napping on the sofa – anything to get a break from the admin, bosses and bureaucracy that have been dragging you into a pit of despair all week long.
But spare a little giggly thought for this stenographer (you know, that person who furiously types everything that’s said in a courtroom into an official record) in New York, who hated his job so much, he repeatedly typed, ‘I hate my job’ in 30 court reports, as well as plopping in random lettering and gibberish on purpose, just to show how few shits he gave about his profession.
One source toldThe New York Post that Daniel Kochanski, who has obvs since been fired from his job, has jeopardised cases which could see criminals walk free because of missing evidence. ‘He hit random keys or wrote, “I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job” over and over,’ the source said.
Claudia Trupp, who works for the Center for Appellate Litigation, is now tasked with trying to make sense of Kochanski’s shorthand, as defendants make appeals against their convictions, and she isn’t entirely happy about it. ‘I never had a situation where a single court reporter was responsible for so much damage,’ she’s said.
‘This situation is terrible for everybody. It’s very difficult to come up with a sufficient record based on everybody’s recollection years after the event.’
Kochanski, who was sacked in 2012, has come forward to deny the allegations, though. ‘I never typed gibberish. I always did my job 100 per cent. I was let go because of substance abuse,’ he’s said. ‘I’m in recovery. July will be one year I’m clean.’
Brb, we’re just looking for Kochanski’s Twitter account; there’s got to be some gold in that one.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.