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Saturday, October 01, 2005

Jury Duty

So I had to report to jury duty on Thursday. (dammit!) And I got picked right at the end of the day! (DAMMIT!) The judge said the case would last 6-7 days. (DOUBLE DAMMIT!) Jury duty is SO boring. I love the idea of jury duty. I love to serve and do my part. But it's SOOO boring when you sit there and have to wait until they at least call you up to interview you.

The case involved a man who raped his wife (they were separated). Just from hearing what the Assistant District Attorney (ADA) said about the case made it seem like an open n' shut case. It seemed like the defense attorney's argument was going to be "She's lying. She cheated on him. There was no rape, it was consensual. This is all a set-up."

It's over now, so I can tell you what happened.

So Day 1...


10:00am: The case starts. The attorneys make their opening statements.

12:50pm: We break for lunch.

2:00pm: The complainant (the woman) takes the stand and we hear her side, and evidence is presented. The case seemed tight.

She was trying to let him be involved with their kids (ages 8 and 2), and see them under supervised visits. He kept harrassing her. He'd call her about 4 times a day. There were over 1,100 phone calls LOGGED from him to her. (that doesn't include the calls he made from payphones and other "ID blocked" locations). He'd try to get into the apartment at least 4-5 times a week, even though there were up to FIVE orders of protection issued. The police had been called numerous times, and he'd been arrested/escorted away more than a few times. The day of the attack, he showed up unshaven, dirty, leaning on the wall next to then door of her apartment... (get this)... WEARING THE TUXEDO THEY WERE MARRIED IN!! (coo-coo! coo-coo!) demanding that she explain each and every single phone calls she made, and explain all her bank withdrawls for the past 6-7 months! (he had records and statements with him). Oh, and he stabbed a knife into the coffee table saying that if she didn't explain, there'd be "some slicing and dicing!" After this, he demanded she put on her wedding rings, then he raped her. I'll leave out the details.

I'm wondering what his defense would be.

3:20pm: We break for a few minutes. A "few minutes" turns into about 30-40 minutes.

4:00pm: The judge comes into the jury room to tell us that the defendant changed his plea to guilty! It took a long time, because "it got too emotional in there" he said. He wanted to apologize to her "alone and in person" (which wasn't going to happen), and he admitted everything. So the case was over.

The sad/weird part is that this was a regular, working guy, who taught chess to NYC public school kids, and who never had any problems with the law (until this). And now, he going to jail for quite some time, and will probablyt not see his kids until well after that. And all because he basically couldn't let go, or realize things were getting out of hand.

Sad.. it's just sad for all of the people involved. The guy, the wife, the kids, their families, friends, students, etc...

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