This morning, while awaiting a city police officer to plead not guilty to manslaughter before Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson, a mini-soap opera played out.

The officer, Thomas Sanders III, a large man dressed in a gray suit, sat quietly next to his attorney, Henry L. Belsky. They chatted and sometimes laughed at private jokes. Around them, defense attorneys and prosecutors swarmed, calling out names of defendants or family members, consulting lists to see if suspects had been brought in from the city jail, even working out plea deals that couldn't help but be overheard by the 14 people in the public gallery.

"Is Mr. Moses here," a defense attorney shouted, with no response.

A small child cried and a sheriff deputy angrily pointed at her mother and said, "Take him out." The deputy then warned people to turn off their cell phones and told another man, "You can't read the paper in the courtroom."

A clerk shouted: "Everybody ready to get started?"

No one paid attention.

A defense attorney told a mother that her son would not be coming to court from his cell at the city detention center, but she would enter a not guilty plea for him. Then she turned to the mother and said, "You have a nice boy. He's cute. You need to keep him out of trouble."

"I'm trying," the mother said.

On the other side of a desk, another lawyer chatted loudly with a prosecutor. "My client will take five years," he said.

Finally, Jude Pierson, wearing a blue bow-tie and black robe, took his place at the bench. The courtroom quieted. And he gaveled the proceeding into session.