Thursday, March 22, 2007
untitled II
Now, about that court case …
Yesterday I ran into one of the jurors during lunch (oh, the judge wasn't that sadistic as to feed me only bread and water). Since the jury was removed from the courtroom before my dressing down, he was curious as to what exactly happened. So I told him what happened, and he told me that later on, the judge also dressed down one of the witnesses on the stand.
I can only surmise that the judge was having a bad hair day.
I also gave him my email and phone number so that I could get some closure to the case once it's over. This morning he called and gave that closure.
Now, since the case is over, I can talk about it. The defendant was charged with DUI, with a BAL of 0.12 (which does exceed the Florida legal limit of 0.08). During the trial, it came out that he was involved in a motocycle accident (he was driving the motocycle) and that his passenger, his wife, died in the accident. His blood was drawn as evidence two and a half hours after the accident, and by using a formula (I forgot the actual name, but it was something like “retrograde determinant” or something like that) his BAL at the time of the accident was between 0.14 and 0.17, twice the legal limit.
The testimony I heard was the State's side, and I missed the defendant's side of the story, but the State's evidence was strong and there was no way the alcohol in the defendant's blood could have risen after the accident.
He was found guilty.
Now, the full story (the juror researched the background after the trial—some of the following details did not make it to the courtroom). The accident happened on September 25th, 2005, on the defendant's birthday. He, and a bunch of friends had been bar hopping all day and were on their way to another bar when an alien (and I don't remember if the alien was illegal or not) hit the defendant, causing the accident (so it wasn't the defendant that caused the accident). The alien had been stopped four times previously for driving without a license. The defendant's wife died at the scene, but the defendant wasn't told this for three days (apparently he had extensive injuries, and in the courtroom he walked with a cane and a pronounced limp).
The juror I spoke with was upset at having to deliver a guilty verdict, but as per instruction by the judge, he was guilty of driving under the influence. And I really feel for the defendant.
He was only sentenced to twenty days in jail, though.
