ABlog

1. In the Central Jury Room, they show a video about the ascent of Justice from the age of medieval superstition to its present exalted state: Trial by Jury. The video depicts a suspect in brown robes being subjected to Trial by Ordeal—dunking in a pond or some such. A member of the jury pool talks back to the screen. “Now we’ve got waterboarding! Alberto Gonzales, how evolved is that!” Nobody’s listening.

2. If you liked high school, you’ll love jury duty. “Jurors, do this.” “Jurors, do that.” “If you do not answer when your name is called, you will be marked absent.” “Jurors, you are under the judge’s control, same as the defendant. If you don’t show up, they can come after you.”

3. "You a Yankees fan?"
"Sure."
"Ya know what the ‘NY’ stands for on the Yankees’ hats?”
"No, what?”
“Next Year.”
“Same with the Mets.”

4. The Central Court building on Schermerhorn, the same vintage as 110 Livingston St., the old “Board of Ed" that's now been turned into condos. The first floor bathroom smells like a week-old used sanitary napkin. Ragged groups of youngsters parade through the cavernous halls, coming through security, their belts in their hands. Re-tying their do-rags, making out in nooks and crannies. The desperate and the merely pissed off shout into cell phones outside the courtrooms. The elevators are packed with incongruous combinations: cynical dark teens talking their bright argot, and grey-faced lawyers in their shapeless suits making conversation about some great Greek restaurant where they recently ate octopus. The beautiful thin tall boy, midnight-skinned, with a diamond stud in his ear, his little girlfriend pressing back against him as they both face forward in the ascending elevator. "You too tall," as she stands on tippy-toe.

5. According to the very young Asian-American Assistant D.A., “This trial is about lust, ladies and gentleman—the lust of a 20-year-old uncle for his 12-year-old niece.”

6. According to the 30-something defense attorney, with bright yellow hair, a red mouth, and bulging blue eyes, who looks intensely uncomfortable whenever she has to object, and who will read her closing statement from a lined pad, “This trial is about the lies of a little girl who didn’t want to get in trouble.”

7. The Evidence feels like a bandage over a festering wound. What aching complications must lurk under the bare, severely cropped story that oozes at the edges but is disciplined by the attorneys’ prep work with the witnesses, the dance of objections sustained!

8. Halfway through the trial, everyone switches from calling the defendant "Vasquez” (pronounced Vas-kwez) to “Velasquez.” Without explanation or acknowledgment of the shift.

9. Regarding the demeanor of Mr. Velasquez, a short, broad-shouldered man with a rather beautiful face who sits hunched but staring with an eagle-fierce gaze: “If looks could kill, that courtroom woulda been full of dead bodies.”—Raymond, juror.

10. The judge is middle-aged, soft-spoken; puts some effort and expression into her reading of instructions to the jury. One woman on the panel of prospective jurors gets dismissed from voir dire by saying to Her Honor, “You look familiar to me. Maybe I know you from Park Slope.”

11. The complaining witness testifies in English, in a tiny voice, with tears, that her uncle pulled up in a “black limo car” and showed her a knife—“a blade”—and made her get into the passenger seat. Two men in the back were speaking Spanish. She smelled alcohol. They were laughing and mocking her—“Look at the little girl.” He drove and parked behind the school. They sat in the car for approximately four hours. He tried to kiss her and asked her to be his girlfriend. He threatened to hurt her if she told anyone.

12. The mother testifies through an interpreter. The defendant is her younger brother, eleven years younger. He lived with her for a few months when he came from Mexico. She is strict with her daughter. The girl is expected home at three-thirty. The mother watches from the window when the girl goes outside. When the girl finally came home that day, she said she’d been in a music class at school. The mother begged the girl to tell her the truth. When the cops came they said it was a family matter and it might be best to resolve it within the family. The mother said no, the police had better investigate, because he was saying one thing and she was saying another. She said she felt bad when all this happened.“Why was that?” “Porque el es mi hermano y ella es mi hija.”

13. Officer Tamara Flood testifies.

14. Detective Luis Gaud (sounds like “Detective God”) testifies.

15. What to do with the fact, of course never mentioned by anyone, that defendant is muy indio in appearance, with the face of a laborer on a Diego Rivera mural; complaining witness has ivory skin, almost European features. The mother’s skin tone is halfway between that of her daughter and brother.

16. The jurors are much preoccupied with what to order for lunch from La Bagel Delight. The judge is gonna “bounce” for lunch today—alternate juror John’s slang for “foot the bill.” According to the court officer, eight dollars is the limit but this judge is very liberal; if it turns out to be nine dollars, she’ll still sign off on it. Knock yourselves out, guys.

17. The defendant has two alibi witnesses. A co-worker testifies that on the day in question, he and defendant were working all day until well into the evening, finishing up a job in the basement of Wolfgang Puck’s Restaurant in Manhattan. The co-worker’s older brother, who runs the small construction business that employs the young men, testifies that he picked them up from the job at a time that would have precluded defendant’s being in Brooklyn pressing his attentions on his niece in the front seat of a black limo car. The brothers’ testimony is not very expansive but it occurs to juror Jan afterwards that for the first time in her experience, an audible voice, however restricted, has issued forth from the great body of short, Spanish-speaking toilers that have come to perform such a large percentage of her city’s manual labor in the years since she made her own immigrant passage. The A.D.A., who spares no effort in his attempt to discredit the defense witnesses, asks the young co-worker if his older brother loves him. “I don’t know. He takes care of me.”

18. Juror Ramón thinks the girl’s story is all “just gossip.”

19. Juror Raymond, who showed up on the first day of the trial worn out after working the night shift at Kennedy Airport, isn’t at all sure. “I had a friend who was a great friend to me. But then I found out he did something. I mean, a situation might arise. You have to realize what anybody is capable of at any given time.”

20. Juror Kester isn’t too bothered by the girl’s generic description of the knife. “Ladies don’t know knife,” he reasons. Nor is he persuaded by the defense’s point that it’s strange the girl testifies defendant held the knife in his left hand when he is right-handed. “If I was going to handle a woman, I would use my right hand, because the right hand is stronger.”

21. Juror Pat, who lets the group know that she’s spent time in Mexico, feels in her gut that the young girl is lying. “There was no black car, there was no knife.”

22. Juror Raymond feels that “Your gut doesn’t lie. What bothers me right now is, my gut’s saying nothin’. Usually, you know, I do get a gut feeling. But right now I’m only going with my head. The two sides are battling it out.”

23. Juror Jan feels “in her gut” (she says) that something did happen. But the girl’s story is too clean, too simple. Perhaps there is folk wisdom in the “stupid” remark by alternate juror John, who stated at the outset that he would want to know the background of the people and whether the defendant had committed other crimes.

24. Juror Laura says she has a police background—family members who were cops and detectives. “The way I grew up, you were always supposed to think that the defendant did it. But now I see it isn’t always that easy.”

25. “This is hard,” the jurors agree.

26. The presumption of innocence triumphs. Mr. Velasquez is found Not Guilty on all five counts: Menacing second degree, harassment second degree, unlawful imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a minor, and fourth degree weapons possession. The A.D.A. glowers. The defendant seems to be on the verge of tears. He thanks the jury, through his interpreter.

27. “What now?” juror Kester said when the group had almost arrived at its verdict. “From now on the mother and daughter will have to be careful,” he reasoned.

28. While the jurors, anxious to begin their weekends (it is Friday afternoon) are waiting to get their certificates of service, the court officer volunteers, “That guy’s got an INS hold anyway, so he’ll probably be deported.”