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“I have seen judges cry,” De-Avila Silebi told the youngsters. “I have cried myself.
“These are ordinary people. They look just like you.”
The judge then gave them information some may find surprising:
“If you’re with other people and someone dies while using drugs, you’ll face charges of drug-assisted death.”
Allard, a former assistant Bergen County prosecutor, brought her students to the Hackensack courthouse so they could see justice in action.
She has a strong supporter in De-Avila Silebi, a former prosecutor herself.
The judge has an intern from Bergen County Technical High School’s Life Experience program working in her office.
“He reviews the pre-sentencing reports I receive and gives me a synopsis,” De-Avila Silebi told the class, which sat in the jury box. “So in that way he is learning.
“And if there’s an interesting case in another courtroom, I send him there to observe, so he gets experiences with other areas of law, like Civil and Chancery.
Assistant Prosecutor Dyanne Lluch and state Public Defender Robert Kalish also spoke with the students.
The experience made Allard proud.
“It’s a privilege to teach my specialty to a great group of students like this,” she said.
STORY, PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia (TOP: Genevieve Allard, right, Bergen County Superior Court Presiding Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, above)
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