The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

by Griffin Dunne

The presiding judge was another piece of work. Again, I can’t better my father’s perfect portrayal of Judge Burton Katz: “In his forties, Judge Katz gives the impression of a man greatly pleased with his good looks. He is expensively barbered, deeply tanned, and noticeably dressed in a manner associated more with Hollywood agents than with Superior Court judges. He has tinted aviator glasses, and on the first day he was wearing designer jeans, glossy white loafers, and no necktie beneath his judicial robes.” For reasons unknown, the judge took an immediate dislike to the Dunne family. Like the monsignor at the Good Shepherd church, he would even mispronounce Dominique’s name, calling her “Dominick.” He also loathed Steven Barshop as much as he found Mike Adelson endlessly charming. He would amiably tease Adelson about his height, to the delight of the jurors, and overrule the majority of Barshop’s objections. One of the few times Katz didn’t let Adelson have his way was when, with the jury absent, he denied his request that Mrs. Dunne be barred from the courtroom because her wheelchair was prejudicial enough to elicit the jury’s sympathy. Even Katz knew that might be pushing it, and would probably invite advocates for people with disabilities to join the victims’ rights groups that were already demonstrating outside the courthouse.