Is alcohol a truth serum? A court stenographer with a serious drinking problem reportedly jeopardized more than 30 Manhattan court cases by repeatedly typing, "I hate my job, I hate my job," instead of the actual trial dialogue.

Daniel Kochanski, who is the man behind all this mess, was fired back in March 2012 for hitting random keys or typing, "I hate my job," during court proceedings. "[The transcripts] should have been questions and answers," a court source familiar with the case said. "Instead, it was gibberish."

The 43-year-old's antics are now being compared to the meltdown of Jack Nicholson's deranged character in 1980 psychological horror film The Shining, where Jack Torrance writes, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," again and again.

The most high profile of Kochanski's chaotic transcripts is the 2010 mortgage-fraud trial of Aaron Hand, who was also convicted of attempting to hire a hit man to attack a witness that would testify against him. Consequently, at the court's expense and time, judges have been holding "reconstruction hearings," in which everyone in the case has to testify what they remember.

Officials are also handling 10 cases going through the appeals process potentially able to claim that crucial evidence is missing in their conviction. "I never had a situation where a single court reporter was responsible for so much damage," said Claudia Trupp, of the Center for Appellate Litigation. "This situation is terrible for everybody. It's very difficult to come up with a sufficient record based on everybody's recollection years after the event."

The stenographer's father, Ed Kochanski, admitted that his son was an alcoholic, losing his wife and job. "The pressure of that job pushed him over the edge, leading him to lose everything," said his wife, Heather Kochanski.

However, Daniel Kochanski denied everything he had done. "I never typed gibberish. I always did my job 100 percent. I was let go because of substance abuse," he said. "I'm in recovery. July will be one year I'm clean."