Associated Press – Jenny Baumann’s itinerary for her first trip to New York City: Rockefeller Center. The Empire State Building. Central Park. Night court.

In a city synonymous with theaters and nightlife, the 26-year-old from Munich, Germany, was perched on a scarred wooden bench in a utilitarian room in lower Manhattan on a recent evening, straining to decode—sometimes even to hear—the methodical hubbub of arraignments in one of the nation’s busiest courts.