12.03.2010

Seminar Help


Stay with me here.

I'm still in the criminal law seminar but there's currently a speaker that doesn't need to be speaking. So instead of listening, I pulled up the transcript of the Not Guilty verdict in Denton County in 1993 [oops: 2003] that a lawyer talked about yesterday.

The facts are weird: A clerk allegedly walked over and fondled a 16 year old girl in a convenience store in Flower Mound. Specifically, he went over and asked if he could give her a hug, did so, and then allegedly touched her breast and crotch area over the clothes. She leaves and goes to the cop. The clerk, of Indian descent, admitted to hugging her because she reminded him of his niece who he "loves very much" but denied the otherwise inappropriate touching.

So the alleged victim is called as a witness. Smart girl. Stellar student. She had even gone to Washington D.C. as part of a high school field trip  where she got to meet Kenneth Starr and Colin Powell and even got to ask Powell a question as part of a meeting.  In the "get to meet the witness" part of the questioning, the prosecutor asked her about meeting Powell and the above exchange took place.  After the throw-away-question-to-make-her-comfortable-question of "What did you think of his answer?" she takes a shot at Israel. (What the heck, girl? You're now just 17 and testifying as the complaining witness in a criminal trial and you decide to volunteer a hot political opinion?)

And, me being a skeptic, I thought "Sheesh, she sure would piss off any Jew. Woah. I wonder if there were any Jews on the jury?" So I scanned back up within the transcript to where the jurors names were announced and the only one that jumped out was a guy with the last name of "Sauls."

I know "Saul" is a Jewish name but what about the last name of "Sauls"?