Lady Jan was the fifth Juror!

It's over now! Thank God! And now I can talk about it! Yay!

It was a domestic battery case, and the woman who had been beaten didn't even show up! And that threw the prosecutions case, as there was no eyewitnesses to the abuse.

Thank God the Officer that had been called had the forethought to take pictures, or there may have been no case at all. The pictures were a little hard to look at, she (the victim)had huge black eyes; that were presumably caused by being headbutted by the defendant, and that was the earlier injury, and some other bruising on her chest as well. The bruising on both of her forearms were the freshest injury at that time, and presumably cased by a wrestling match with the defendant over the remote control.

There was two charges against the defendant and we couldn't get the worst one--the felony charge on him, because there was some doubt, because it was older injuries. And there was some testimony by the defendant's parents, and a last minuet detective hired by the defense attorney that the bruising was caused by her(the victim's) jealousy over his(the defendant) affair with some woman presumably named Annette. And a fight with this other woman ensued. The lawyer for the defense, a real sleazy looking fellow(and drama Queen), wanted us to believe that this fight was what caused all the bruising. But that other woman Annette was never called as a witness, so I am inclined to believe that she's the figment of someone's imagination.

And with the photos it was clear to all of us, that the bruising had to be a week apart.

I think she(the victim) didn't appear because of buyers remorse--She just didn't buy into this much trouble. I just wish she had the guts to appear in court.

So even with the photos we were only able to agree on the lesser charge of assault which was a misdemeanor for the wrestling match.

Then our Foreman (woman) gave the judge our verdict, and just before we were dismissed we were given permission from the judge to talk about the case now that it was all over.

It was such a relief for us to talk about it that we were discussing it openly out by the shuttle pick-up area. Then the defendant's parents walked by and we shut-up real quick! And they (the parents)then stuck their noses in the air as they paraded by. One of our now former juror said, "Well! They should be glad we didn't get him for everything, and be happy we just got him for the lesser charge!" I had to agree.

Before that we were just relieved we could get him on one charge--the lesser charge. But the real bummer was that our Juror Foreman's (woman's) mother was a batter woman. Our Juror Foreman was a real good Foreman(woman) and didn't let her emotions get in the way, and was real good about reading the instructions to us, and making us use our logic too. But after it was over with that she admitted that she felt terrible, that the one misdementor guilty charge was all he was going to get. But as one of our fellow jurors pointed out to her and all of us, that since he is on probation--it's an automatic trip back to the big house for him.