Jury Duty

ElizabethB

ElizabethB

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I had Jury Duty August 5th and 6th.

I have been called 5 times. This was the third time I have served. The first two times were in civil court. Personal injury. In both cases fault was stipulated so our job was to decide how much the insurance company had to pay. I HATE PI CASES.

This last case was a criminal case in federal court. I have not said anything before now because I have had to have time to digest the horrific crimes committed.

If you have young children, especially daughters, you may not want to read further.

I knew this was more than a PI case because I had to report to the Federal Court instead of State Court. The day began with the typical "hurry up and wait" while all of the perspective jurors were checked in. 60 perspective jurors were escorted into the court room and the Judge began voir dire. The questioning of the jurors continued until 3 p.m. 12 jurors and 2 alternates were selected. I was juror #9. We heard 2 witnesses that afternoon.

The case

The case was being tried in federal court because the offense had taken place on federal property - Fort Polk Louisiana, Vernon Parish. The accused was in the Army living in base housing.

The indictments

#1 Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Minor Under the Age of 12
#2 Sexual Abuse of a Minor Between the Ages of 12 and 16

The accused is the father of the victim.

Day one the Attorney for the Government made his opening statement. It was graphic and disturbing.

The Defense Attorney made his opening statement. He tried to cast doubt on the daughter's testimony by claiming motive (she was angry with her father) and error on the part of the initial investigators and the DNA Analyst. I felt sorry for him because he had nothing to work with.

The evidence was overwhelming. The Detective of Sex Crimes from the Vernon Parish Sheriff's department had 12 years experience. She explained her method of collecting evidence. The first was a black light test. Body fluids fluoresce under black light. Different fluids fluoresce distinctly. Blood fluoresces red with a medium viscosity. Sweat is nearly clear and feathered from the movement of the body. Semen is white and thick. The family had been living in the apartment for 9 months. The detective testified that the room "lit up like a Christmas tree." With 12 years experience investigating sex crimes she testified that she was shocked by the amount of semen in the room.

The most gut wrenching part of the trial was the testimony of the child. She is 16. A small child who looks younger than 16. She has been abused since she was 9 years old. Her description of the early abuse was that her father told her to take off her clothes. He took off his pants and rubbed himself against her back until white stuff came out. When asked what happened next she said her father told her to clean herself. This was when the family was stationed in Fairbanks Alaska. They were transferred to Fort Polk Louisiana. The abuse continued and escalated to forced oral sex and eventually to rape.

Where was the Mother? Working. The father always limited his abuse to times when the Mother was away.

The parents divorced after the father returned from a tour in Afghanistan. He had domicile custody of his children. Daughter and 2 younger sons. Mother was living in Barksdale CA. Father had a live-in girlfriend.

The young girl finally told her father's girlfriend that "My Daddy took my virginity." The girlfriend made an anonymous call to the sheriff's department.

The child was taken to the police station to be interviewed. She made a rough drawing of their apartment. She put dots on the drawing of her room to show where here father had abused her. Semen was found in every location.

The final whiteness was the DNA analyst. Her testimony was overwhelming. She compared known samples from the father and daughter to unknown samples from the scene. The samples matched the father's DNA. The probability of finding another match would require the population of 28 million earths.

We retired to the jury room . Had we taken a vote as soon as we sat down we would have had an immediate verdict . Based on the principle of innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt there was some discussion about the DNA evidence . One juror did not understand the numbers . After 30 minutes we returned a verdict of guilty on both counts

Sentencing will be 2 or 3 months from now . Indictment #1 30 years to life - no parole . Indictment #2 15 years to life - no parole. In addition the defendant is facing state charges and trial for the same crimes committed on non federal property (off base apartment )

After the trial the Judge asked to speak with the jurors. Because it was public record he told us that the defendant had been offered a plea bargain. 25 years - no parole on federal charges and a discussion with the state DA about dropping or reducing state charges. The reason was to spare the Child from having to testify against her father. The fool refused the plea.

The Judge was very frank. The defendant will get 30 years only in his dreams .

Every morning and every evening I pray for that child . She is 16 and her life has been ruined by her father . The man who should protect her from evil has subjected her to all evil.

Life in prison will not give his daughter her childhood . Nor will it give her a normal adult life .
Sorry

I have debating sharing this with you . It was a gut wrenching experience . I am not sorry for serving. I will always think of that Child.
 
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I've only been called once and it was rather boring - in fact, I can't remember much about it!. Sorry you had such a disturbing case to hear. Its very difficult and you will probably never forget it. No - life in prison won't give his daughter her childhood. But at least she can begin to recover, hopefully with the help of some specialist services, support groups. And you were part of the process that can bring that about.
 
@ElizabethB - that sounds terrible to have to listen to and unimaginable for the girl to have gone through.

Molestation...we probably all have some kind of story (or stories). I grew up in a different time and place, and as a child, I witnessed a few episodes of graphic assault on a family member. When I finally told, I received the beating of a lifetime for ever even saying such a thing.

It was a different time and the feeling was that that kind of stuff was kept quiet, no matter what the cost. The person it happened to, BTW, is now close to 60yo and has never had a "normal" life, just a life full of misery and I feel that a lot of that has to do with that abuse when they were 11-13yo. Sad.

Later, a different branch of the family, a young one was assaulted over several years, and the adult, in order to save the child from having to testify in open court, was given a plea deal of just 60 days in jail and he had to leave the state. Nothing like pushing a problem to somewhere else.

We also had one other case in the extended family, where a parent was hosting sex parties at their house, kind of like a poor man's Hellfire Club, and dressing their young child up in provocative clothing and using them to serve drinks to attendees. Apparently, nothing beyond that happened, but it was only a matter of time before it would have escalated. Penalty for that? Lost custody of their child. That was it. Didn't even have to register as a sex offender.

My coworker was a juror on a nationally-covered murder trial. After a couple months of intense testimony, and daily exposure to graphic crime scene photos...he came back to work a changed man, like he has a low level of PTSD or something.

When I was in the military, I was tasked to be a bailiff on a court-martial for an abuse case. That one went the other way, and it did seem to be a flimsy accusation at best.

The only time I've been a juror, it was a wild, wild case, involving a very reclusive family (they reminded me of my own) where the dad was accused of being physically (though not sexually) abusive to his teenaged daughter.

Inasmuch as something like that can be entertaining/funny, it was because he decided to represent himself, and lo and behold, he won. He came across like he was imitating every badly-acted TV/movie lawyer.

Two things spun it in his favor - it became obvious the police and CPS poorly handled the case, both asking the young woman lots of very leading questions, and then the testimony of the young woman herself, who finally admitted that she'd gone out drinking with her friends from school and had fallen, and that's where her bruises came from. Her drinking buddies also testified to the same.

Oh, the scorching rebuke the judge gave the police and CPS! Even though they'd royally messed up, I felt bad for them.
 
@ElizabethB: really shocking. I used to think that abuse cases always involved someone who wasn't a direct relation: step-father, uncle, family "friend". I never cease to be amazed at what humans can do to other humans. My only consolation in hearing this is the knowledge that prisoners don't take kindly to child molesters: many of them were molested themselves. I would honestly be surprised if he lives to see the end of his sentence.
 
I was foreman of a jury in an armed robbery trial when I was in my mid-20s. I think I was nominated because I seemed to be an organizer, or maybe because I was the only one who wore a suit. :laugh:

This was an armed robbery in Detroit - specifically, a carjacking case - and it was as interesting as it sounds, but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. You'd think with Detroit's reputation in the 1980s that this was a case with extreme violence and maybe even a terrifying shootout. Instead, it plays more like the plot of a comedy.

A man apparently decided that he wanted to steal a car. I'm still not sure if he filled his girlfriend in on all the details, but she was also involved in the caper. It was summer, and not everyone had air conditioning in their cars. I would routinely keep my windows down, regardless of where I was.

As a car was stopped at a red light, the girlfriend went to the passenger-side window and started talking to the man driving the car. This was apparently an inrtentional distraction. As the driver turned to listen to what she was saying, her boyfriend approached the driver-side window. What happened next was phenomenal.

The boyfriend took his wallet out, and flipped it open and closed quickly: he claimed to be a plain-clothes police officer, and the business of flipping the wallet open and closed was supposed to represent flashing his badge to identify himself. He told the man that he would have to commandeer his vehicle for an important police operation. The man asked to see the "badge" again, and the boyfriend got angry. And, yes, it gets even better.

The boyfriend then put his hand in his coat pocket, pointed with his finger through his coat, and claimed to have a gun. He said that there was no time to argue, and that he needed the vehicle right now. The driver wasn't sure if the "gun" was real or not, so he got out of the car and let the boyfriend have it. He reported the incident to police, and an arrest was made the next day.

As comical as all this was, the trial itself was fittingly ridiculous. The girlfriend - I should say ex-girlfriend - decided that she didn't want anything else to do with her idiot boyfriend, so she decided to be represented separately in court. Her attorney was brilliant: she focused her case on portraying the boyfriend as the "mastermind" of the operation, and then refused to put her client (the girlfriend) on the stand.

In the States, you can choose to not testify to avoid self-incrimination. This is sometimes a risk, because a jury might decide that you're hiding something. In this case, it turned out to be the right decision. The boyfriend's attorney was really young - maybe younger than I was at the time - and easily flustered. He wasn't always clear on judicial procedure, and had to be corrected more than once by the very experienced judge in the case.

Making matters worse, the boyfriend was also prone to lying: he changed his account of the events at least twice. Having an inexperienced attorney in the case only made things worse.

The trial lasted 4 days, including the jury deliberation. There as no doubt that the boyfriend was guilty, but our main issue was trying to decide what sort of verdict to give to the girlfriend. She did initiate the conversation that distracted the driver, so it was hard to believe that they didn't have something planned.

In the end, the boyfriend was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The girlfriend got 6 months of probation.
 
ElizabethB said:
I had Jury Duty August 5th and 6th.

I have been called 5 times. This was the third time I have served. The first two times were in civil court. Personal injury. In both cases fault was stipulated so our job was to decide how much the insurance company had to pay. I HATE PI CASES.

This last case was a criminal case in federal court. I have not said anything before now because I have had to have time to digest the horrific crimes committed.

If you have young children, especially daughters, you may not want to read further.

I knew this was more than a PI case because I had to report to the Federal Court instead of State Court. The day began with the typical "hurry up and wait" while all of the perspective jurors were checked in. 60 perspective jurors were escorted into the court room and the Judge began voir dire. The questioning of the jurors continued until 3 p.m. 12 jurors and 2 alternates were selected. I was juror #9. We heard 2 witnesses that afternoon.

The case

The case was being tried in federal court because the offense had taken place on federal property - Fort Polk Louisiana, Vernon Parish. The accused was in the Army living in base housing.

The indictments

#1 Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Minor Under the Age of 12
#2 Sexual Abuse of a Minor Between the Ages of 12 and 16

The accused is the father of the victim.

Day one the Attorney for the Government made his opening statement. It was graphic and disturbing.

The Defense Attorney made his opening statement. He tried to cast doubt on the daughter's testimony by claiming motive (she was angry with her father) and error on the part of the initial investigators and the DNA Analyst. I felt sorry for him because he had nothing to work with.

The evidence was overwhelming. The Detective of Sex Crimes from the Vernon Parish Sheriff's department had 12 years experience. She explained her method of collecting evidence. The first was a black light test. Body fluids fluoresce under black light. Different fluids fluoresce distinctly. Blood fluoresces red with a medium viscosity. Sweat is nearly clear and feathered from the movement of the body. Semen is white and thick. The family had been living in the apartment for 9 months. The detective testified that the room "lit up like a Christmas tree." With 12 years experience investigating sex crimes she testified that she was shocked by the amount of semen in the room.

The most gut wrenching part of the trial was the testimony of the child. She is 16. A small child who looks younger than 16. She has been abused since she was 9 years old. Her description of the early abuse was that her father told her to take off her clothes. He took off his pants and rubbed himself against her back until white stuff came out. When asked what happened next she said her father told her to clean herself. This was when the family was stationed in Fairbanks Alaska. They were transferred to Fort Polk Louisiana. The abuse continued and escalated to forced oral sex and eventually to rape.

Where was the Mother? Working. The father always limited his abuse to times when the Mother was away.

The parents divorced after the father returned from a tour in Afghanistan. He had domicile custody of his children. Daughter and 2 younger sons. Mother was living in Barksdale CA. Father had a live-in girlfriend.

The young girl finally told her father's girlfriend that "My Daddy took my virginity." The girlfriend made an anonymous call to the sheriff's department.

The child was taken to the police station to be interviewed. She made a rough drawing of their apartment. She put dots on the drawing of her room to show where here father had abused her. Semen was found in every location.

The final whiteness was the DNA analyst. Her testimony was overwhelming. She compared known samples from the father and daughter to unknown samples from the scene. The samples matched the father's DNA. The probability of finding another match would require the population of 28 million earths.

We retired to the jury room . Had we taken a vote as soon as we sat down we would have had an immediate verdict . Based on the principle of innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt there was some discussion about the DNA evidence . One juror did not understand the numbers . After 30 minutes we returned a verdict of guilty on both counts

Sentencing will be 2 or 3 months from now . Indictment #1 30 years to life - no parole . Indictment #2 15 years to life - no parole. In addition the defendant is facing state charges and trial for the same crimes committed on non federal property (off base apartment )

After the trial the Judge asked to speak with the jurors. Because it was public record he told us that the defendant had been offered a plea bargain. 25 years - no parole on federal charges and a discussion with the state DA about dropping or reducing state charges. The reason was to spare the Child from having to testify against her father. The fool refused the plea.

The Judge was very frank. The defendant will get 30 years only in his dreams .

Every morning and every evening I pray for that child . She is 16 and her life has been ruined by her father . The man who should protect her from evil has subjected her to all evil.

Life in prison will not give his daughter her childhood . Nor will it give her a normal adult life .
Sorry

I have debating sharing this with you . It was a gut wrenching experience . I am not sorry for serving. I will always think of that Child.
Click to expand...

So sorry for everyone involved, especially the child. As a parent you are supposed to protect young ones. I really can't get my head around how people can abuse kids, I really can't. I've never seen it close to anyone I know. Closest was a friend had unlawful sexual contact with his nephew, a deaf 14 yo. My ex friend got 3 years. I've never spoken to him since. In Fact if I see him I'll prolly flatten him.

Russ
 
@ElizabethB I am so very sorry that you had to go through that ordeal. Child abuse cases are often the worst.

My ex-step father was initially a criminal lawyer before specializing in family law which included child abuse. As a teenager, I used to attend court add the firm's representative on cases such as child abuse where the victim was my age or even older. One such case included the death of one if the infant victims. Another resulted in the girl being taken into care.
I also distinctly remember the autopsy photographs of a murder victim. The boyfriend had stabbed her 127 times in front of their 3 year old child before putting then to bed. Out was a neighbour that called the police the following day because the child was crying constantly which was unusual. The kid's room was next to their room in a semi detached house.

I've also had jury service 3 times. The first armed robbery. Bundled from the word go because an off duty police office was sitting behind their vehicle at a set of traffic lights and noticed that they were all wearing thick padded jackets in the middle of summer. 5 our them crammed into a standard UK hatchback, all in coats suitable for a very cold winter... he took the car reg to check it out when he got to work (he was on his way in at the time). Turned out it was stolen. So basically the police saw the whole thing go down... They were all prosecuted separately for various reasons. Our guy got 9 years (max 10 yr sentence possible). We were told at the end after sentencing that the other 4 were all found guilty and all got 10 yrs. Our guy got 9 because he was seen to actually stop the someone from being shot.

The second time round was a child abuse case. Not as horrific as my first but there a juror instead. It wasn't easy either way. Guilty. Sentencing at a later date.

Third time around I asked for me to be let off. It was less than 6 months from my 2nd jury service and I shouldn't have been called up. Granted.

I've also had the experience of being the one having to call the police in. I was the senior it engineer in a boarding school and without going into too much detail, I intercepted, recorded and find the evidence the police needed to finally convict another it engineer (unrelated to the school) who had also coached his victim into hiding evidence from families and friends and obviously the police. He hadn't taken me into account, nor the resources I had available to protect all of the children at the school. He was convicted of paedophilia and is now a registered sex offender. Thankfully I was never called up to attend the court cases and my name removed from all of the evidence presented. Literally ever piece of paper had my name or username on it and I had given them over 500 pages of evidence and could present even more if it had been asked for.
 
@ElizabethB - I am so, so sorry you had to go through something like that - reading your account literally made me cry. I myself have no children, yet somehow I understand.
 
I was foreperson of the jury. After we sent the Judge notice that we had reached a verdict I asked my fellow jurors how they felt about receiving a summons for jury duty. They all said that they were not happy about being summoned.
I asked if they regretted serving. The reaction was emotional. They were all glad to have been a part of putting a predator behind bars.
I then asked what they would take away from the experience
Every man and woman said that they had learned much about our judicial system
Every one said they were proud to have served.
Every one said they would proudly serve again.
IDK what the judicial system is like across the pond.
The most difficult part of the trial was keeping the presumption of innocence in mind. That is why I had to pray for guidance.
 
I've been asked twice to attend, I said as I was self employed I didn't have time as I never knew where I was from day to day. I was excused. I would attend now though as my time is more free.

Russ
 
@rascal
In the U.S. work is not an exception from jury duty. Some health issues may excuse a juror.
Several prospective jurors were eliminated based on bias and prejudice. Some were eliminated because they were not able to understand simple instructions.
The Voir Dire was an interesting process.
G received a Jury Summons for State Court. He opted out on an age basis
He is over 70.
I am a little disappointed
I would like for him to serve.
Jury duty is an education in our judicial system.
 
ElizabethB said:
@rascal
In the U.S. work is not an exception from jury duty. Some health issues may excuse a juror.
Several prospective jurors were eliminated based on bias and prejudice. Some were eliminated because they were not able to understand simple instructions.
The Voir Dire was an interesting process.
G received a Jury Summons for State Court. He opted out on an age basis
He is over 70.
I am a little disappointed
I would like for him to serve.
Jury duty is an education in our judicial system.
Click to expand...

One of the cases I was asked to attend was a BIG case. About 30 years ago. It's quite random because I've met 2 people that were on that jury. The guy at the centre is seeking a pardon ATM. From his death bed. And more random a family friend is tending on him now in a hospice.

Russ
 
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