Jury Trial Recap!

So the dust has settled and I'm sitting on the floor of the kitchen while Vake watches The Cat in the Hat.

Had SO much fun yesterday- while it lasted. We had Judge Nance, retired and very old school judge- he did not horse around at all. Think we got a jury seated after about 20 minutes! (That's a process that can take 2-3 hours in a sex case.) Anyway, both the ACA and I had really strong openings- I finally nailed it- I had practiced a couple of times with my court partner and had just been ok. Nice to know that apparently I play better than I practice.

Anyway, the direct and cross of Detective Davenport was uneventful and then the alleged victim took the stand. She was not good but good enough for her direct examination by the ACA but she had just a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde moment when it was my turn. She was, in turns, angry and screaming at me or fighting me on unimportant details. Once we got to more important details and she tried to update the testimony that she had given at the preliminary hearing, I was really able to discipline her with the transcript from that hearing. She finally raised her hand like a student in school, started crying and then told me that she "needed to talk to her lawyer." I suspect that she wanted to get testifying guidance from the ACA, but it looked as though she was just scared and lying.

So, anyhow, at that point, the Judge ordered a ten minute recess, cleared the jury and made it clear to us that we should resolve the matter. The ACA made a misdemeanor domestic assault and battery offer- no probation, no registration offense.

Sad part is that neither party walked away happy. My client still wound up taking more time than he wanted to because of the pendant misdemeanor telephone charges. The ACA, who I think is a good lawyer and a good person, had to be so frustrated because she's taken the position (an extremely defensible one) that she will only settle domestic rapes in terms of years.

So that's that. And now that I've gotten it wrapped up, it is on to the felony murder I have in the hopper and hopefully more blog posts. It's Father's Day weekend so we'll spend some time with the Daddio this weekend.