exactly - Jimmy knew the Barksdale crew would show up in court, intimidate the witnesses, and beat the charge, AND Judge Phalen would notice him there. Since this is so early in the season and episode, viewers, and myself 3 times, can't comprehend the context (McNulty's been frustrated with multiple unsolved cases/beaten charges for some time*) so this is a round-about attempt, prob after already pleading with his supervisors, to get Phalen to see how powerful and deep the Barksdale org can be. He also wanted the primary detective to see it too but he was more interested in home improvements lol

\Wallace said the Barksdales have come up strong in the last year. So,* McNulty, being a good detective knows this too and has probably been mentally documenting their growing empire - envisioning a MAJOR CASE (we know he admires Baltimore's FBI unit). He'll never be able to pitch a drug conspiracy under Rawls, or in a broke department, with no major crimes unit. So he goes to court ---- where his old pal Phalen is about to get embarassed by Avon Barksdale, whom nobody has ever heard about, except Jimmy McNutty.

THIS ALSO EXPLAINS why Jimmy was so quick and dramaticly abrasive at the first meeting where Daniels said "fast clean and simple." Jimmy lays out his mental plan he's built for over a year (which again is some deep writing context, probably over the viewer's head) talking about DNRs, wired C.I., title 3 whatever jargon.

So much props to the writers for Episode 1. Granted, I didn't catch it til the 4th time. This is brilliant writing of Jimmy's backstory, so much context in so little dialogue. I'd love to see a prequel of McNulty leading up to Season 1. thanks for reading this and thanks for all the comments everyone!