CLARA-SOPHIA DALY, HOST: The alleged shooter in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway attack was ordered to be held without bail at his arraignment hearing at the Brooklyn Federal Court today. Lucy Grindon reported on the scene at the courthouse. Lucy, what was it like down there today?
LUCY GRINDON, BYLINE: Well, when I arrived outside the Courthouse in downtown Brooklyn this morning, a crowd of journalists was on the sidewalk across the street. They were preparing for on-camera reports and hoping that the suspect, Frank James, *might* be brought in through the front entrance. No one really knew for sure, but most people thought he'd be taken in through a back entrance or that he was already inside.
DALY: So were you able to get into the actual hearing?
GRINDON: When I went into the courthouse, one of the marshals who was staffing security tipped me to head to the 11th-floor room that’s usually used for arraignments. After waiting in a mostly empty courtroom with one other reporter and two sketch artists for about an hour, a clerk arrived and told us to head to the 6th floor… then we waited there for the arraignment to begin…but two other marshals came and said press access was being strictly limited to the 5 reporters on this official list they had. So the 6 other reporters in the courtroom and I all had to leave.
So back outside, around noon, about a dozen network technicians were seting up their microphones in a big cluster on a mic stand, anticipating that the defense attorneys might come out and make a statement. Or at least they were hoping that they would. No one ever appeared to talk to the press, so the reporters just did their stand-up reports with the courthouse in the background.
DALY: So what happened in the arraignment?
GRINDON: The hearing lasted less than half an hour. Prosecutors said James would pose a “severe and ongoing danger to the community” if he were allowed to leave custody. Magistrate Judge Roann Mann said that the complaint against James quote: “speaks for itself,” and she issued a permanent order of detention. She also said she would ask the federal prison bureau to give James “psychiatric attention” while he’s being held.
DALY: Has a trial date been set yet?
GRINDON: No, not yet. If James is found guilty, though, he’ll likely face life in prison.