So, at an approximate rate of a $5 an hour, I sat on a jury for a DWI, first offense trial today. Yes, a jury trial for a criminal misdemeanor Driving While Intoxicated. and for $40 for the day, yes I was there ALL DAY with the trial--9 to 4:30 with an hour and a half lunch (the half hour was due to technical difficulties....)
So yesterday morning I knew the trial was going to be somewhat interesting when the lawyers, after having us seated for the panel, called for a sidebar with the judge and they decided to reshuffle the names for some unknown reason. My suspicion is that the first row wasn't....diverse...enough. I went from a happy position of about 8 or 9 to 3, for a 6 person jury....which meant the odds were that I would be selected, and I obviously was.
I didn't like the lawyers just from my general impression during Voir Dire yesterday. Very stereotypical lawyers. Again, I could tell things would be interesting in this trial.
So today, after dropping off the car for a dr visit and being dropped off at the courthouse by the helpful Moore, I went up to the 3rd floor, collected my money, nicely given to me as cash, and than went downstairs for a bit of breakfast. Good coffee---and they offered hazelnut creamer!!! (rather than boring plain powder creamer and sugar...) My biscuit sandwich was good too. I went upstairs at about 9:00 and was sent into the jury room to wait for everyone else to arrive--which wasn't long. We had a nice chat about schools--out of 6 jurors there were 2 teachers and 1 substitute teacher-- and getting to know each other while waiting for The Knock. We went in and the trial began. They had opening statements--both telling us the video and testimony would lead us to their respective desired verdicts, and than the first, and thought to be only, witness was called--the officer who pulled the defendant over.
Poor guy was here at trial after having done a 10-6 graveyard shift.... and his fatigue was apparent the rest of the day. Through his testimony, I was leaning towards guilty, but I felt that there were holes and looked forward to seeing the video. There were many interspersed objections from the defense attorney, some sustained and some overruled. He was a stereotypically brutal guy to the witness. We had a little break halfway thru the morning at which point I went back down to the snack bar and bought some water, Cracker Jacks, and gummy fruits to munch on and hopefully help me stay awake. We went back up and the testimony wrapped up to the point of being time for the long anticipated Video. and oh how I was disappointed....
The basic story is that the defendant was spotted turning onto a well-known street without his headlights on. The officer, heading the other direction turns around and speeds up. The officer testifies that he witnessed the car crossing into other lanes so he pulls him over and smells marijuana in the car, and alcohol on the driver's breath. He then administers the field sobriety tests and arrests the defendant for DWI. The defendant denied smoking pot, and initially drinking alcohol, but than he admitted to having "a few beers" He was headed out at 3 in the morning to get some food with a friend.
Little laptop. Shady projector. Portable screen. It all comes up and I wait....and wait...for them to make the video bigger from the obvious program that is used in the patrol car....and it didn't go full screen. I leaned in as close as I could to the video. Then, with delayed staticy sound--because the A.D.A. thought that they laptop speakers would be enough, we had a 10 minute break for them to find speakers. We try again, and than part of the way thru, the projector freezes. And the judge decides we should have the half hour extra for lunch.
I headed off with the other full-time teacher for some food at Playa Azul, a yummy Mexican restaurant I had never tried before. I was quite impressed. We shared a plate of beef fajita nachos--without beans since neither of us was a fan of such, and talked for awhile about life and everything but the trial--being the good jurors that we were.
The trial begins again and we watch the video all the way through. I'm not impressed with the video quality being as it's a major piece of evidence. I can tell a little bit that still makes me suspect the defendant was intoxicated. Things wrap up for the prosecutor and the defense lawyer takes his turn.... and he picks apart the poor officer's testimony about his credibilty in giving the field sobriety tests. and I begin to hate the notion of reasonable doubt--and with that the video had been better....and continue to enjoy my people watching. I saw some definite weaving--staying in the lane--when the defendant turned his lights on, but I couldn't see anything before that due to the darkness and distance between the camera and car. I couldn't really pick up on any signs of swaying or stumbling from my vantage point when the defendant went through the sobriety tests.
Just when I have hope that things wrap up, the defense produces evidence of a urine test taken 15 hours after the pull-over. The defendant denied to give blood for a blood test and asked for the breathalyzer, which wasn't given for some reason...probably because they really wanted to catch marijuana on him and the breathalyzer wouldn't pick up on that.
So the prosecutor calls a rebuttal witness to basically place doubt into our heads as to the legitimacy of the urine test. Personally, I think it was legit but the defense waited too long to get the appropriate paperwork--there wasn't a chain of custody form so we had no way of knowing of the urine test had been observed. We also get to hear the different ways that people falsify drug urine tests... such a learning experience.
Finally, things wrap up. I'm intrigued to hear what the other jurors have to say. Initially, we decided that if we were in trouble we'd want that defense attorney at our side. I really WANT to go for guilty, but I can't make a fair decision. We all picked up on different things in the video, so we asked to watch it again--same poor conditions. (Seriously, couldn't they have made a DVD from the video program????) I notice a bit more swaying and stumbling, but nothing that made me say guilty--beyond reasonable doubt. It wasn't enough to help me get pass the now discredited testimony. The only testimony I honestly was disappointed from the officer was that he didn't turn off the flashers during the HNG test (eye check) which is one of the more accurate field sobriety tests if administered by protocol--but flashing lights make are a no-no. We take a poll and 4 out of 6 jurors say not guilty. I give my opinion that the defendant was definitely buzzed and I wouldn't have wanted to be near him on the road, but by the law, I would have to go not guilty. I wasn't going to be swaying anyone anytime soon, and I really did have a tiny bit of doubt--the prosecutor didn't do the best job showing the burden of proof--I had too many unanswered questions from the evidence presented.
So the verdict was not guilty. I just hope he learned his lesson--he was completely respectful and cooperative to the officer in the pull over. Nice looking guy, nice looking parents. I'm not friendly to DWI though....and I would not be happy if he were to get pulled over again for driving while under the influence of a substance. He was just barely intoxicated from what I could see in the video. I do think the officer had probably cause for the arrest and I do think the charge was valid, but in a jury trial, as they explained to us yesterday, there's a much much higher standard for burden of proof.
My friendly juror friend took me to my get my car--hopefully happy from it's to be rare tune up...(our car is complicated...apparently, the spark plugs are rather buried...) and I picked up Josh, talked to my younger bro on the phone, and had peproni rolls with friends before going to see The Pursuit of Happyness, which I liked--definitely a drag down movie until the end. I thought it was well done though--effectively telling and portraying the emotion of the story.
Tomorrow, I hope to have a more restful day. The only plans as of right now are a sinus x-ray at 12:00 to get a picture of why I have recurrent sinus infections, which have become more brutal to my migraines and ears recently.
Posted by Anna at March 13, 2007 10:24 PM | TrackBack