The Trial

The Trial - July 23, 2015

We took a 1 1/2 hour lunch break. I went to Leo's Taverna where they serve average Greek food. Since I wanted to keep the healthy streak alive, I ordered healthy food from there and ate by the HPU building. I loved the salad, but the gyro was average. I was sitting across this girl and she was so emotional talking to what I can only assume was her boyfriend. She was so emotional about how she was so stressed out in life and was getting upset that her boyfriend didn't understand her. I didn't want to eavesdrop, but she was so damn loud. The lady next to her left immediately, which was what I should have done, but I didn't, and continued listening to the conversation. It was good entertainment for the time being.

I went back at 1pm. We were directed to go back into the courtroom. It feels so good that everyone has to rise while we enter the courtroom, I felt powerful at the time. The case was about a guy violating his TRO. The mom put out this TRO against him, and he violated the TRO because he was at the house to feed his dogs. I know what your thinking 'the guy got arrested for feeding his dogs'. In a nutshell, YES! A neighbor heard arguing and called the cops. Just so happen that the officer just delivered the TRO to the guy 2 hours before hand and was dispatched to the same address and coincidentally saw the guy and arrested him for violating the TRO. Now, there was obviously more pieces to the story. But the prosecuting attorney didn't give a F%$# about that. He needed to get his case air tight. All he wanted the jurors to know was that the guy violated his TRO. It was clear, he did.

The defense attorney tried to make this case seem like an accident, which it was. The guy's mom (who took out the TRO) was the first witness. She was very emotional and it was clear that she made a mistake taking out the TRO. The mom actually dissolved the TRO after her son was arrested. After the mom testified, the officer came up and gave his account. We took a short break. And then, the defendant came up. The bad thing about the defendant was that he didn't defend himself very well. The defense didn't prep him good enough especially with the damaging evidence against him, which made me think why he didn't plea out. He came off as brash and arrogant, almost gave us feeling that he was better than the law. You can see the prosecuting attorney grin as he was questioning him, like I got him where I want him. Add to the fact that the defense attorney had the defendant as the only witness and produced no evidence to suggest that he was innocent. It was 4:30pm when closing arguments finished and we were off to a separate room to deliberate.