Field Excursion #6: The boys and girls meet a man who works for the Man

          This week the gang and I met with the venerable Dr. Lajos Korona, a lawyer who works in Budapest’s metropolitan public prosecutor’s office. For about an hour he shared with us the details of his profession and we were able to ask him questions to learn exactly how the prosecutor’s office of Budapest operates. Dr. Lajos Korona was an extremely amiable character and to quote “Tito” Wasiuk he was one fly-dressed cat.
         

            The prosecutor’s office in Budapest consists of many levels and branches, which each have different jobs and jurisdictions. Dr. Korona’s office deals with crimes of a more serious nature such as homicide or other violent acts, drug crimes, and high-scale property crimes. He explained to us the process in which a supposed crime goes from the initial police interrogation to a submitted plan with questions to ask the suspect for the prosecutor. He oversees the investigations of the police and makes sure that all the procedural rules are followed to ensure the prosecution is obeying the law and putting forth a good case for conviction. What is interesting is that Dr. Korona is not obliged to spend any time at trial at all, for that aspect of the case is handled by a different branch of the prosecutor’s office. Essentially Korana’s office works to ensure that the best case is brought to trial, and they do all the pre-trial work and then just simply pass it on to the trial prosecutor. I would argue that Mr. Korana’s job is more important than the trial prosecutor, because if evidence is not collected properly and witnesses are not asked the right questions pre-trial than the trial itself. Essentially there is no chance of a conviction unless Mr. Korona’s office puts forth a good case. 

          Sadly for this woman Dr. Korona doesn't wear a uniform, but rather oversees the men    who do.

Another important aspect of his job is to kind of “oversee” the Renderseg (Hungarian police for all you Americans) and make sure they are following the proper procedural rules and are not participating in any unethical behavior. Dr. Korona explained that very seldom do they find any evidence of police corruption, and that when it is done it is often an isolated incident. This is somewhat contrary to what we’ve been told about the police from some Budapest natives. One gentleman we met told us that the police are often times corrupt and take bribes and break procedural rules. This man who told us this had actually worked in a police station as a clerk and said he had experienced several incidents of police corruption first-hand. When I heard Mr. Korona say that corruption wasn’t a big issue, I instantly thought to myself that one of them might be not telling the truth. Maybe the man we met was exaggerating the extent of the corruption or it was isolated to just that particular station. In contrast, maybe Mr. Korona was unwilling to admit to a bunch of strangers that there was rampant police corruption or the police officers are just good at getting away with it and Mr. Korona didn’t know. I have no idea of who’s right or wrong, but I found it interesting to hear two very different perspectives on the Hungarian police force.   

                            Perhaps if the corruption allegations are true the Hungarian police force could learn a thing or two from the sure-handed leadership of Chief Wiggum.

            I would compare our experience with Dr. Korona as similar to a guest-lecturer in a college class. We were able to study justice (hardy har har) from a different perspective, and were able to draw upon our prior knowledge of American legal institutions. Overall he did a good job presenting the material in a way that kept us interested throughout and I think all of us had a favorable opinion of the lecture.

                        

                                    I think Lady Justice would be pleased with Hungary.