1.19.2010

Crazy and Abrupt End To Marijuana Trial

OK, this is what I know about the marijuana case which began this morning in the County Court at Law. The jury is picked and sworn in, and then there's a break for lunch. One of the jurors goes to Chili's to eat and sits in the bar area (sans alcohol). Coincidentally, the defendant, along with two girls, eats there as well. As the juror asks for his bill, the waitress tells him that it has been taken care of "anonymously". (Insert dramatic music.) He sees an acquaintance at the restaurant and asks him if he paid for it. Nope. The juror then seeks out the waitress and asks. insistently, who paid his bill. She is hesitant to disclose the information but points in the general vicinity of the defendant. Oh, my. So the juror is kind of freaked out and pays the bill anyway. (He didn't want any part of this whole mess.) He then heads up back to the courthouse and stops by the office of someone there that he knows and explains what happens. His confidant says (and I paraphrase), "sheesh" and takes the juror up to the judge to disclose what happened. The juror is very uncomfortable at this point. This is when I stumbled into the scene and get excited simply because of the craziness. The judge then gets the prosecutor and the defense lawyer together and explains what is going on. A mistrial is going to happen but let's at least get the defendant's story. The defense lawyer checks with him and comes back and declares that, "He says he didn't do it." That my or may not be true. Who knows. Well, since the juror at least thinks the defendant tried to buy his lunch, either with ill intent or by trying to make an innocent (but idiotic) nice gesture, the damage is done. Heck, this probably would make the juror more likely to convict than it the whole incident didn't happen. But now law enforcement is checking into the whole situation.