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Spent the day doing my civic duty. More behind cut.
Well, as I half-expected, it was a DUI trial. A guy leaving a Valentine's Day dance he was helping run was pulled over late at night for improper backing (he backed out all the way across the street, a no-no) and the officer smelled beer on his breath. Administered a few field sobriety tests, but then the guy refused to take the breath test, or to repeat any other test back at the station.
The defendant has a physical disability, so maybe the physical tests were unreliable. It was late at night, he was possibly concerned over a friend's injury (he was going to get some bandages), and he felt the police had been harassing the party because patrol cars had been seen several times...so maybe the mental tests were unreliable.
Unfortunately, the prosecution only had the arresting officer as a witness. No cruiser camera, no breath test, and the other officer on the scene was doing crowd control and didn't witness anything meaningful (at least the prosecution didn't think so, because the other officer wasn't a witness). And two of the jurors were unwilling to convict based on a single witness, period. They did admit that the defense case was weak (I think the defense sucked donkey hindquarter), just didn't think that the prosecution case was strong enough based on just one witness to stand on its own, leaving defense aside.
So we convicted on the moving violation, but deadlocked on the DUI. Got out of the court about 4:45 in the afternoon. Someone else gets to try it again in a few months.
Oh, and I got to be the foreman. No one else really wanted to, and I figured correctly that I'd end up dominating things anyway, so might as well have the figleaf of the position. :)
Well, as I half-expected, it was a DUI trial. A guy leaving a Valentine's Day dance he was helping run was pulled over late at night for improper backing (he backed out all the way across the street, a no-no) and the officer smelled beer on his breath. Administered a few field sobriety tests, but then the guy refused to take the breath test, or to repeat any other test back at the station.
The defendant has a physical disability, so maybe the physical tests were unreliable. It was late at night, he was possibly concerned over a friend's injury (he was going to get some bandages), and he felt the police had been harassing the party because patrol cars had been seen several times...so maybe the mental tests were unreliable.
Unfortunately, the prosecution only had the arresting officer as a witness. No cruiser camera, no breath test, and the other officer on the scene was doing crowd control and didn't witness anything meaningful (at least the prosecution didn't think so, because the other officer wasn't a witness). And two of the jurors were unwilling to convict based on a single witness, period. They did admit that the defense case was weak (I think the defense sucked donkey hindquarter), just didn't think that the prosecution case was strong enough based on just one witness to stand on its own, leaving defense aside.
So we convicted on the moving violation, but deadlocked on the DUI. Got out of the court about 4:45 in the afternoon. Someone else gets to try it again in a few months.
Oh, and I got to be the foreman. No one else really wanted to, and I figured correctly that I'd end up dominating things anyway, so might as well have the figleaf of the position. :)
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