When Juries Actually Work
Ever serve on a jury? I have, and didn’t enjoy one particular experience that took place in 1996. That year, I was picked to serve on a traffic court jury for Cook County, Illinois. The case was about a man who was arrested for drunk driving when he was stopped at a Chicago Police Department roadblock. According to witnesses, police officers at the roadblock motioned for the man to come forward with his car. Seeing that there was no response, one of the officers walked up to the vehicle and discovered the defendant incapacitated, his car wreaking of alcohol, and a nice, big bottle of booze by the man’s side. Police officers turned the vehicle off for the driver, helped him out of his car, and informed him of his arrest. However, the arresting officers turned their back on the man for one moment (big mistake), at which point he declared, “Well, if I’m going to jail, I might as well have another drink.” The motorist then proceeded to grab his bottle and down the remaining contents. After hearing the case, my fellow jury members decided to ignore the breathalyzer results, as the procedure was administered shortly after he chugged the bottle. And the rest of case? Open and shut, right? Wrong. A number of jury members started to feel “sorry” for the man, and argued that he wasn’t really drunk, he was just “scared” of the big, bad, policemen (which, they rationalized, would explain why he didn’t pull forward at the roadblock when he was instructed to). Never mind that he was a pile of crap at the roadblock, his car stunk of alcohol, and the smoking gun was on the seat right next to him. To make a long story short, the trial ended up in a hung jury, and a mistrial declared.
I often wonder if someone lost their life down the road because jury members felt “sorry” for this individual.
Well, I recently read something in the North County Times that helped restore my faith in juries… a little. You may have heard of Marty and Vernon Ummel, who sued their real estate agent because, they argued, the $1.2 million they paid for their Carlsbad home in 2005 could not be justified when other houses on the street were selling for much less at the time. The Ummels claimed their agent failed them and thus owed the couple $150,000, the amount they felt they overspent.
Well, on April 10 it took a jury less than two hours to unanimously clear the real estate agent, Mike Little. According to the North County Times’ Teri Figueroa:
After about a week of testimony at the Vista courthouse, the panel of 10 women and two men rejected Marty and Vernon Ummels’ arguments that they overpaid $150,000 for their home near the Four Seasons Resort Aviara…
“Mr. Little did what he was supposed to do,” jury forewoman Wendi Brick said. “The bottom line is that you (as a buyer) are responsible when you sign a contract and purchase something.”
Now, if only those who are pushing for a mortgage bailout could grasp this simple concept…
Source:
“CARLSBAD: Jury clears real estate agent”
Teri Figueroa
North County Times, April 10, 2008
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