To indict or not to indict...

The topic header was the question we were to answer every time a new case was brought before us.

When we showed up every morning by 8:30am, we had a stack of indictments in front of us.  The count was anywhere's between 10 to as many as 50 or so and the goal was to get through all of them that day, or try to. More on that part later.  
They called it a "Vote and Schedule Sheet".  A typical one looked like the one below:

For me, I'd jot my notes down on this, how much drugs they had, what kind,  how many needles, what kind of gun they were carrying, etc.  Things of that sort.
And if I was feeling rather bored, which was a lot of times, I'd throw down some serious doodling on the sheet.  What did I care?  It was being shredded at the end of the day.  :)

The process was explained to us and this is how I explained it to my wife and those that asked.
A witness or victim would come into the Grand Jury room where 12 of us were at and the PA (read My Grand Jury "tour" to find out what a PA is).   We would turn on a digital recorder and I would log the digital recorder #, who was testifying, where they were from (if they were public officials ie police officers, sheriff, deputy, parole officer, or victim or witness), the case number and who the defendant was.  So in essence I was the Grand Jury logger.  And to think my chicken scratch log taking is now part of a permanent record in the Summit County records somewhere.  :)
After the digital recorder was turned on, our foreman would swear this person in & they would sit down.
The PA would ask them to state their name, where there from and confirm they were there for this particular case #.
The witness/victim would then give us their side of the story.  What they were there for, what they saw, what they did, basically paint a very brief picture of what transpired to lead to the felony charge(s) the defendant received to get them to end up in front of us.
These testimonies could last as little as 57 seconds (me and deputy foreman joked around that we wanted to see if we could hear a testimony in as little as 1 minute.  It happened only once.  That being the cop would give his testimony,  the PA would have no questions for him, we would have no questions for him and he was done....BAM!!  57 seconds is the fastest we went through one of them!)
but to continue, the testimonies did last from 1 minute up to 2 days due to multiple witnesses and what not.  The one that lasted 2 full days was a big one!  But for the most case they were about 1 minute to about 10-15 minutes on average.
Once the witness would testify, the PA would ask any questions they would have of the witness to get a better picture of what happened.
Once they were satisfied with answers to their questions, we were allowed to ask any questions we had.
Sometimes some good questions were asked.  Sometimes, some very bad questions, not pertinent to the case was asked.  In some cases, the PA would let the person asking that question know that that wasn't pertinent to the case.  Some PA's would allow the question even though it wasn't pertinent.  We never understood that.
We had a couple of Grand Jurors (GJ) that sometimes would ask the most impertinent questions of the witness.  That only prolonged an already long day and generally had no bearing on the case and frustrated me (in particular) on many, MANY occasions.
One GJ, in particular, at one point during a testimony asked the testifying police officer, after we were told he used his ASP to try to slow down a defendent, she asked him how much the ASP weighed and if he was "properly trained in the use of the ASP."
I didn't care...I just lowered my head and was thinking, "NO...they just handed this cop the ASP and told him to look up some YouTube videos on the use of it and sent him on his way!!"
The cop sort of looked at the PA, the PA shrugged his shoulders and the cop said, "Umm..not sure of the weight of Officer Jones' asp, they vary in size.  And yes, all of the police officers have thorough training in all the gear they wear and are issued."
I just looked at her & I could see a look of confusion on her face like she was expecting more.  Everyone was looking at her.  She wrote something down as we waited for her to acknowledge his answer and after about a good 30 seconds, she said, "ummm...ok...thank you."  like, "Well I guess that will have to do."
This same juror was absolutely notorius for asking very, very off the wall questions that really had no bearing on the testimony and she would do the same thing after each question.  Write something down with a look of absolute confusion on her face as if there should be more information, wait about 20-40 seconds, then say, "Umm...ok...thank you." to release the attention from her.  And to top it all off, 90% of the time, she wasn't even involved in the voting.  She was one of the jurors that would have to leave when it came time for us to vote.
Her "antics" (for the lack of a better word) started almost immediately when we started hearing cases.  And I have more descriptions of other jurors.  But you'll have to check back for that chapter.
Once the PA and the GJ were satisfied with the answers, the testimony was over and the victim/witness was excused.
We'd shut off the digital recorder and the victim/witness would leave the room.  The PA would ask us if we had any questions for them pertaining to this particular case.  Sometimes we did, most of the time we did not.  Early on we had a number of questions and they quite expected that.  But after about 2-3 weeks...we had most of this stuff down pat.
The PA and 3 "alternate" jurors would leave the room.  We only needed 9 to vote and all we needed to indict was a vote of 7-2.
Sometimes we'd discuss what we heard just to make sure someone didn't miss anything.  Our foreman and one of the other jurors were meticulous on note taking.  I came to rely on one or the other if I felt I missed something.  I'd say about 85%-95% of the testimonies we heard were pretty much cut 'n dry.  "Probable cause" was all we had to worry about to indict someone.

Most of the time we were all in agreement on our votes.  On rare occasions after some debate, we'd end up with a "remanded" case meaning it was a 6-3 or lower vote (I think the 6-3 was the number) and that case either meant not enough evidence to convict or we, the jurors, just didn't think it was indictable.
Often times the PA would tell us, before they left, if they thought it wasn't indictable.  Meaning, "It's up to you GJ's to indict or not.  But if you do indict, I will have a hard time presenting this case in court and the defense will make mincemeat out of me.  But I am bound by the courts to do what you decide on."  I think only once did we go against the PA's suggestion.  Those votes were rather easy.

The foreman would jot down the vote count, write it on his vote sheet and take it out the the secretary...rinse, repeat....then we'd hear the next case!


Next episode...OMG...Did that defendant really say that?

My Grand Jury "tour"

I got the "jury duty" summons after dodging it since I was 18.  "Guess it's my turn." I thought.
I tossed the letter in the "get to it later" pile and went about my business.

A few days later I though I'd better check it.  I read it and was remembering what Emily' told me in the past of how it works.  Upon closer inspection I saw it was "Grand Jury" duty!  What the hell is that?  Emily laughed.  I always envisioned Grand Jury duty being a room full of judges  deciding on cases.  Boy was I wrong.
I did a search on the internet & found a few articles about it.  One written fairly recently in the Akron Beacon journal about another juror' experience.  It was insightful and answered a few questions for me.
I tried to get out of it via my boss and HR at work.  No luck.  I'm stuck with this.  Someone said I might be able to get out of it if I tell the judge I personally know 4 Akron cops.  Figured it couldn't hurt.
My summons was for July 5th, 2017, 8:30am in the Summit County Courthouse.
I showed up with the names of all the Akron police I know memorized ready to walk out of the court room and work from home the rest of the day.
...It didn't go that way...at all!
I went into a room with about 200 other people, gave the lady at the desk my name and she handed me a sticker.  I was juror #4.  "Ha!  #4...that's my lucky number!!"  I sat down in the overly crowded room and waited for 8:30am to arrive.
They were rather prompt and my experience started at about 8:34am.  "Everyone I gave a sticker to, please follow me.  You are grand jurors."  About 75% of the room stood up and we all filed out.  Good grief...I felt like I was back in the Navy for some reason.
They put us in numerical order outside the tiny room and we "marched" to a court room.  I will say this.  The people that were organizing us and showing us to the court room were very, very nice and went out of their way to already accommodate us.  Offering elevators, stairs, showing us bathrooms and drinking fountains.
They led us into the courtroom and since I was a low number (#4) I sat in the jury box.  The others, beyond #14 (I think) were instructed to sit in the rest of the seats in the courtroom.
We were sworn in and told to be seated.
Introductions were made from the people in the courtroom and they explained that the Grand Jury was a high honor and our "stint" (as I called it) was going to be 9 weeks.
"9 WEEKS!?!?!" I thought to myself??  Gahhhhh!!!  Well hopefully I won't be selected.
The judge went through her speech asking anyone if they had letters from their employers excusing them from jury duty.  Not me, unfortunately.
I honestly forgot what happened after that.  I think I zoned out.  Eventually she asked if there was anyone that knew anyone in the judicial system.  I raised my hand, "I know 3 Akron cop....errr..Police Officers and a 4th one will be married into the family by month' end." I told her.  I was expecting to be excused at that point when one of the prosecuting attorneys, who I later, come to very much respect asked me, "In knowing them will your decisions be biased at all?".  Everyone was staring at me!  I thought a moment, "Gahh...lawyer double-talk!!  He's got me up against the ropes!!  Do I plead the 5th?  Do I lawyer up?  Do I break down and cry?".  I answered honestly, "No, I don't think so.  I think I'll be fine."  My only ace in the hole & it didn't work.  Crap!  They moved on.
There were still about 75+ people in the courtroom.
"Maybe with so many they'll ask for volunteers with the lot that is left?"
The selection process went on for about another 45 minutes or so.  The judge and attorneys had a number of side-bars looking over the courtroom and making decisions.
Finally the judge started counting heads left in the jury box.  There were about 7 of us left in the jury box including me.  She pointed at the next 8 people in the seats next to the jury box and told those people to move into the jury box.
Once it filled up she held up her left arm and divided the jury box from the rest of the courtroom.
"Everyone outside the jury box, you're excused.  Thank you for your time."
"CRAP!" I muttered under my breath.  Juror #5 looked at me.  "I really didn't want to be here." I told him.  He smiled and just shrugged.

I think I zoned out again as I watched the lucky "non"-jurors file out.  Most were smiling.  Wish I was smiling, I thought.
After the courtroom was cleared they escorted us to the Grand Jury room.  My new place of my civic duty for the next 9 weeks.

The Grand Jury room had its own room, its own sign above the door and next to it, its own waiting room, magazines and toys.  "TOYS?"  I didn't understand that aspect at all, at least not then.  That understanding came later.

We went into the Grand Jury private room.  The tables in there were "L" shaped.  6 seats on each side.  There was a tv on the wall, a chalkboard which had our "Estimated dismissal times" written on it already for the next few days.

I sat down at juror #4' seat and opened the folder in front of me to start reading the pamphlets and fliers that were in there.
A few minutes later I was asked by the PA's (prosecuting attorneys) if I could switch with juror #3.  They told me that juror #3 would have to know how to operate a digital recorder in case juror #2 (the Deputy foreman) wasn't in.  I said, "Sure...why not?".  They thanked me many, many times as if I just made a huge decision in their lives. So I became juror #3.  Below is a view from where I sat for the past 9 weeks.  The table to the right is where the Prosecuting Attorney' sat and the table directly across from me is where those giving testimony sat.  This was usually Police Officers, Detectives, victims, witnesses, Parole Officers, etc.

They had coffee for us, which they did every morning.  Not great coffee...but free coffee nonetheless.  I never snub my nose at free coffee.

I won't bore you minute details of what happened next.  In a nutshell, that day, July 5th, 2017, I started learning more about the law and would continue to learn more about the law then I learned my whole life prior to that.  Don't ask me to quote things or what the difference is in "this" and "that"...that's what Google is for.  But needless to say, I became a little wiser to our judicial system.

Next episode...the process of indicting a "Defendent"....

New domain and web site from me on the horizon!!!

Every few years I get the itch to have a domain and do something interesting with it.  I had cowski.com for a while but that really never went anywhere.  I used it for stupid stuff or on occasions didn't use it at all. Domains are cheap and thought it would be cool to have one of my nickname.
Fast-forward several years & I've been pretty much doing stupid blogging here which was very few & far in between or non-existent at all.
Fast-forward several more years & here we are again.  I'm having thoughts about setting up another domain but this time I plan on being useful with it.
I'll continue to use this blogger site for my openly opinionated...opinions but my new domain will be more useful.  Plus my son Josh offered to occasionally write an article for it and anyone else I can get to write for it.

It will be aimed at techy stuff, web info stuff, 3d printing stuff and maybe even beginner quad-copter stuff and any other stuff I can come up with.
I have several domain names in mind but won't mention them here just yet. I know several people that would take my domain name & register it just to be funny.  I have some real asshole friends but in the long run they'd sign it over to me after the joke ran it's course.
Josh offered to host everything for me so when he's able to (he just moved up to Fairview Park) he'll start getting things rolling for me & I'll get my domain(s) registered & go from there.

If you would like to contribute in any way, please let me know.  If anything it will be something to do other than facebooking.  I'm looking right now for just article contributors.  But that could change.

I'll keep everyone in the loop.  Hopefully it will be up & running in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned!!!

Oh...btw....out of curiosity I checked on cowski.com to see if it was available.  It is....for $977!!  Some chucklehead took it, used it a very short time then decided to sell it.  At a huge profit.  I'm not sure who would want to use that for anything other than as a joke domain name.  I check on it periodically to see if it's available.  As of right now, it's $977.  Originally that's about 100x more than what I paid for it a number of years ago!!  Ah-well....so be it.