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This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections. |
| District Court | |
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  Other locations:
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| Owned by | Los Angeles |
| Entrance | Defendant lobbies |
| Enter from | MASON System |
| Relevant cases | All low-level criminal trials |
The Los Angeles District Court is a courthouse housing several courtrooms and defendant lobbies. It is an important location for local defense attorneys and prosecutors such as Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, and Apollo Justice, being the place in which all lower-level criminal trials occur. The District Court has been the scene of at least four murders: the DL-6 Incident in which Gregory Edgeworth was killed, the murders of Byrne Faraday and Mack Rell, and the murder of Candice Arme. It was also where Dahlia Hawthorne attempted to murder Diego Armando, as well as the scene of a number of other violent assaults on defense attorneys. Perhaps most notable was the bombing of Courtroom No. 4 in December 2027 that reduced said courtroom to ruins.
A perfect record shamed
Main articles: The Inherited Turnabout and DL-6 Incident
Prosecution legend Manfred von Karma had been put in charge of proving the guilt of Issei Tenkai, a famous television chef who had been accused of murdering another television chef, Isaku Hyoudou. Von Karma was infamous for tactics of questionable scrupulousness in court, such as presenting false or illegal evidence and rigging witness testimonies. During his investigation, von Karma conjured a theory as to how Hyoudou had died. Chief prosecutor Bansai Ichiyanagi blackmailed the elderly coroner Otome Itami into creating a forged autopsy report that supported von Karma's theory. Von Karma presented this in court, but Tenkai's defense, Gregory Edgeworth, had also been investigating and knew for a fact that the body was unaccounted for. Edgeworth pointed this out, and von Karma was, for the first and only time in his career, penalized. Once the trial ended, Edgeworth, his son Miles and a court bailiff by the name of Yanni Yogi left the courthouse in an elevator. However, a power outage struck the building, leaving the Edgeworths and Yogi trapped in the elevator. After 5 hours, when the air thinned to unbearable amounts, Yogi started to attack Gregory. Miles grabbed the bailiff's pistol, which had fallen out of its holster, and threw it at the tussling men to try and pry them apart. The gun went off and the bullet went through the window of the elevator. Manfred von Karma had been stumbling blindly around for some time, trying to find his way out of the building. At that moment, von Karma was in front of the elevator, and so the bullet hit him. The power then came back on. Von Karma, noticing the gun at his feet and the three unconscious men in front of him, put two and two together and killed the defense attorney who had wronged him.
Due to a lack of decisive evidence, the police contacted Misty Fey, a powerful spirit medium, to channel Edgeworth's spirit, which pointed to Yogi as the killer. Yogi got off the hook by a temporary insanity plea, but the case would not be truly resolved until 15 years later.
A double murder in the courthouse
Main article: Turnabout Reminiscence
Mack Rell had been hired to silence Deid Mann, an employee of the Codophian Embassy who had been scheduled to testify about the activities of a certain international smuggling ring. If caught, Rell was under orders to claim to be the Great Thief Yatagarasu. This he did, but he did not recognize the Yatagarasu's calling card, which made his claim suspicious. Rell hired Calisto Yew as his defense lawyer.
Yew instructed Rell to accuse the prosecutor, Bryne Faraday, of being the Yatagarasu in exchange for an acquittal. Rell did as Yew said, and in light of Rell's claims, the presiding judge decided that Faraday was no longer fit to prosecute. The judge called a one hour recess to prepare a substitute prosecutor.
The man for the job was Miles Edgeworth, whom Manfred von Karma had taken under his wing after the DL-6 Incident. Von Karma had recommended Edgeworth to prosecute. However, proceedings came to a screeching halt when both the defendant and the prosecutor were found dead in Defendant Lobby No. 2. Initially, Tyrell Badd and a newbie Dick Gumshoe were to be the chief investigators, but von Karma used his authority as a "perfect" veteran prosecutor to override Badd and place Edgeworth and his own daughter Franziska von Karma at the head of the investigation. At first, Gumshoe was the prime suspect, but through clever deduction skills, Edgeworth was able to establish an alibi for Gumshoe and confront Calisto Yew, whom he thought was the real killer. Edgeworth cornered Yew, but Yew pulled out a gun and escaped, despite pursuit by Badd. Yew would not be caught and justice done until 7 years later.
Courtroom rules
Some of the procedural rules that are referenced include infractions for the following:
- Wasting the court's time
- Badgering a witness
- Leading the court
- Presenting illegal evidence
However, these rules are enforced inconsistently if at all. In particular, many prosecutors and witnesses use threats and intimidation tactics to get the judge to do what they want, even though these behaviors would fall under leading the court. Individuals whose behavior ought to be punished but are not include:
- Acro: bringing birds to court and having them attack the defense
- Jean Armstrong: picking flower petals
- Larry Butz: interrupting after a verdict is given and drawing pictures during a trial
- Yuri Cosmos: riding a mini scooter
- Miles Edgeworth: interrupting after a verdict is given
- Max Galactica: throwing cards
- Simon Blackquill: bringing a pet hawk Taka to court and having him attack various people, as well as using a "finger slice" on the defense
- Damon Gant: interrupting a cross-examination
- Klavier Gavin: playing rock music
- Godot: drinking and throwing coffee at the defense
- Cody Hackins: bringing and using photographic equipment
- Dahlia Hawthorne - bringing and using an umbrella
- Victor Kudo: throwing seeds at the defense
- Florent L'Belle: spraying perfume
- Sal Manella: speaking in L33T
- Jake Marshall: drinking, eating jerky, and shaving with a knife
- April May: shameless flirting and provocativeness
- Aristotle Means: bringing and writing on a chalkboard
- Mike Meekins: shouting into a megaphone
- Hugh O’Conner: carrying a bow and arrows into court, as well as threatening others with them
- Olga Orly: carrying a lobster on a platter into the courtroom, as well as bringing and using photographic equipment
- Marlon Rimes: carrying a barrel full of fish, throwing said fish onto the floor, and bringing a large marlin into court
- Frank Sahwit: throwing a toupee at the defense
- Myriam Scuttlebutt: wearing a large cardboard box that conceals the upper body, as well as bringing and using photographic equipment
- Ema Skye: eating snacks
- Angel Starr: handing out boxed lunches
- Dee Vasquez: smoking
- Franziska von Karma whipping the defense, witnesses, and the judge
- Benjamin Woodman: testifying via a ventriloquist dummy
- Phoenix Wright: communicating electronically with Detective Dick Gumshoe outside of the courtroom via a cell phone
Judges can object (normally feebly and to little effect) to such instances, usually by requesting that a court bailiff intervene. One ruling that was strictly enforced was to prevent a clown from telling bad jokes.
Mecha?
There is a model of the courthouse inside the 3rd Floor Lobby. The model's creator spent as much money to build the model as it took to build the courthouse itself. Although subsequently fired, he was later seen talking to his son about a hidden mechanism built into the courthouse. Since hands and a face can be seen when looking into the model, this might be hinting at the model being a disguised robot.
Localization note
Since the English localizations of the games take place in Los Angeles, California, the District Court may be intended to be one of the two Federal District Courts for the Western District of California.
