Miami-Dade County Court Judge Don S. Cohn remembers the news photographers with their popping flashbulbs. He was 5 years old — and awed.

The subject of the press’ attention: his grandfather, a prominent attorney in the small Connecticut town where Cohn grew up. A man was accused of raping and killing a young woman on her way to a 4-H club meeting. As the reporters and photographers peppered his grandfather with questions and the camera bulbs flashed, it cemented a goal in the boy’s mind.