Jury Duty & The Seven Deadly Sins


When I tell people about last month's jury duty experience at Superior Court in San Jose, they're surprised at how entertaining and inspiring it was. Isn't jury duty rather boring? Didn't it waste your time? Well, yeah, some of the testimony was incredibly dull, since the questions have to be asked in that precise, lawful, fact-by-fact manner. More boring is the actual jury selection process, which takes a while. During the trial itself, some particular witnesses' testimony was absolute nonsense, and some details they gave directly contradicted previous statements made to the police. This was quite frustrating.

But overall, I'm really happy I was in that particular courtroom at that time. It didn't hurt that the whole thing didn't take more than a few days out of our lives, instead of an inconveniently longer trial.

In order to try to convey some of the surrealism of the super-official proceedings (this is a courtroom after all!) contrasted with certain moments of sheer amusement, I will write about the experience using the Seven Deadly Sins as my rubric. This is not to make light of the case itself at all, which again, was a serious matter with strong allegations. From my and at least a few other jurors' perspectives, however, we gained a lot of knowledge and delight from the whole thing, and I mean to concentrate on that and keep you engaged with the Deadly Sins gimmick.



Before I get into this, I should first mention how inspiring Judge Chatman was. She really set the tone for how the whole thing went, and I can't say enough good things about her. By definition, you'd expect a judge to be authoritative, but on top of that, Sharon Chatman, an African-American lady, brought to her courtroom an engaging, respectful, humorous, and humane tone that affected all of us. She told us she used to coach women's basketball at San Jose State for ten years, and that she'd been a judge for the past seven. She gave us a whole rundown on the court system, and talked about how as a judge, she is not supposed to be a stone, but let her emotions show, while keeping them under control and not allowing them to interfere with her rulings. On top of that, she was quick to give props to her courtroom officers and the Spanish translators who worked for the court.

She decorated her courtroom with vases of flowers everywhere, which was a really nice touch, as a prospective juror who got kicked out said to her as he left. And, when someone would mention during his jury selection interview that their spouse was a housewife, she interjected and asked that person to please refer to that person as a "Home CEO" because what they do is "just as tough as what a CEO of a company has to do, if not tougher." She was a great ringmaster, but also came across as really down-to-earth.

I especially appreciated her understanding of our situation, how she told us, "I know jury duty is seen as a great interruption of our regular lives. I also get called in for jury duty, and do you think it disrupts my life? You bet it does. And I know that as individuals, to each of us and our work and family, we are very important. But there are some things in life that are bigger than each of us individually, and jury duty is one of these things."

Truly a remarkable, impressive person.


Okay, onward to the 7 Sins!


1) LUST

This case was a classic "He Said, She Said." A housepainter, George (not his real name) was charged with four counts:
1) Sexual Assault (Kissing on her against her will, groping her breasts)
2) Battery (She had a bruise on her arm in one picture that the defense presented)
2) False Imprisonment (Holding the Claimant against her will)
3) Trespassing (Going into her apartment against her will)

He said:
After working at a San Jose apartment complex for about a week, painting walls and doors, George strayed from his crew to make out with a gal, we'll call her Esther, whom he'd been flirting with. He gets her number, they mess around a little at her apartment, and it's all consensual. Next thing he knows, he's hit with these allegations. The Defense believes that because Esther discovered soon after the incident that Mike worked for the same painting company that her husband used to work for, she thought she'd eventually be discovered and concocted a story to protect her, this story being...

She said:
On the afternoon in question, George keeps asking for her number but she won't give it at first. Finally, to stop his pestering, she goes into her apartment to get a pen and paper to write it down. He follows her inside, and proceeds to do the things she accuses: kissing on her mouth, grabbing her breast, slamming her against the wall, holding her with both arms and not letting her go (the false imprisonment charge), until he finally leaves.

George pleaded Not Guilty to all four counts, and never testified. There was only half a day of testimony -- from George's boss, whom pretty much had only good things to say about him, then from Esther and her friend, whose testimony was unclear. Things were making so little sense that the case was thrown out by the prosecutor by the next morning.

Under this sin, I might add that the court secretary and stenographer were both really attractive women, in their early-to-mid 30's -- I guess the fact that we weren't allowed to talk them only added to their appeal. We were instructed to only speak directly to the bailiff, and since he was also good-looking, and physically fit with crew-cut blonde hair, I noticed some of the women on the jury did unnecessarily. It was a good-looking court! I almost felt like I was sitting on the set of Law and Order.


2) GLUTTONY

Judge Chatman had promised us fresh fruit each morning! Very cool. We could even make beverage requests. Alas, the case was finished before the first official morning and we never got the fruit. I had hoped for cornucopias of scrumptious red apples, perfectly ripe bananas, and luscious grapes, maybe some XXX Vitamin Water, my favorite flavor.

Another anecdote involving food occured at one point in the proceedings, while the attorneys were approaching the bench. And incidentally, one of the defense attorneys was a heavyset fellow whom looked like a young Rodney Dangerfield with those eyes, even sounding a bit like him, but more refined, less comedic.

During this bench approach, on juror, Mike, a middle-aged Chinese-American science tutor, beckoned the bailiff over.

"Jeff, hi, can I get some coffee?" Mike asked, pointing to the tray next to the court secretary. Jeff obliged with a smile. At this point, we hadn't been told that the drinks were also for us, so I thought Mike had quite a bit of chutzpah to request some coffee.

"Anything else?" Jeff asked Mike.

"Yeah, could I get a cookie too?" asked Mike, nodding at the lemon-creme cookies next to the coffee. He sounded like an eager kindergarten student.

Later, on our afternoon cookie, I grabbed a cookie for myself. As I followed the rest of the jury into the elevator, I remarked, "Mmmm, this cookie IS pretty good!"

Without missing a beat, a brunette gal juror smiled and said, "I don't think it's quite as good if it doesn't come directly from the bailiff!" We all erupted in laughter. I would've high-fived her if she wasn't at the other corner of the elevator.


3) GREED

For our jury service, each of us was paid the princely sum of $10.00 a day + gas money! Nice. But what's really priceless was the experience of being in court and having the privilege and responsibility to help figure out if there was enough evidence to prove the allegations.

It was also great to meet all these other people you'd never normally come across in your day-to-day life, and getting to know them a little.

In addition to Mike, I met Suresh, an Indian Cisco engineer; Mrs. Ramirez, a Mexican-American housecleaner; Karen, a vet technician; Jim, a retired accountant who used to play football in college; a VTA bus driver lady who resembled Rita Moreno and had her vivaciousness and pep; and a few other cool people.


4) SLOTH

According to Judge Chatman, the hardest-working officer in the court is always the court reporter/stenographer. Because whereas everyone else can have moments where they relax a little, the reporter must always be recording verbatim everything that's being said on the special stenotype machines, and thus, they are always working. Sometimes, witnesses would speak too quickly and Judge Chatman's reporter, Kimberly, had to ask them to slow down, but for the most part, she'd just be typing away. Kimberly told us that she'd studied rigorously for 5 years to do her job. Respect!


5) WRATH

At one point, Rodney Dangerfield was about to ask one of the witnesses a question that would've reveal some detail about her friend Esther, and Judge Chatman, in a startlingly angry, loud voice, admonished: "MR. RODNEY! DON'T ... EVEN .. GO THERE!"

I can only assume that this was sensitive personal information that didn't really pertain to the case. So awesome to see how aggressively Judge Chatman put the kibosh on that. It was at this point that the lawyers approached the bench and Mike asked for some sweet-smelling coffee and that yummy cookie.


6) ENVY

By now, you might be feeling envious that you weren't on this jury too. I hope if you're selected for jury duty, your experience will be just as interesting. But to be honest, I think we lucked out big-time.

The whole experience was so memorable that on our last day, after we'd gone over some questions and answers with the judge regarding the case, the same brunette who'd delivered that great bailiff-cookie line, raised her hand and told Judge Chatman, "On behalf of the other jurors, I just want to say thank you for making us feel so welcome in your courtroom, educating us about the process, and being such an amazing judge. I know I got a lot out of this, and I hope everyone else feels the same."

At this, we all spontaneously applauded her and the court officers, and it was clear from the way they smiled that they were touched by this compliment.


7) PRIDE

Ah, sweet vanity! During a break in the jury assembly room, one of the jurors, a nice Mexican-American lady with a bouffant hairdo, mentioned to me, "Anyone ever tell you that you look like Apolo?"

At first my inner nerd for Greek Myths was alerted. Then I realized who she must be talking about. "Cool, like the speed skater?"

Rita Moreno said, "Oooh, he's haaaandsome!"

I winked back, "I should hope so!"




******

Some sketches done in the jury assembly room:









Quick sketch of the courtroom:





And this is the letter of thanks each juror received from Judge Chatman. We also got a nice pen.