Bryan D. Brown

The trial began as expected. The prosecution made it’s opening statement, and for the most part their case followed the outline they laid out. I won’t go into too much detail. Suffice it to say that if the prosecution proved what they claimed, then we’d have little choice but to convict the defendant.

The case itself was not nearly as painful as I had anticipated. Yes, the subject matter was difficult. And watching a little girl divulge horrendous things to a trained counselor - the film of her disclosure to the counselor was shown in court - was not easy, and not an experience I’d like to go through again. But I expected it to be much worse.

What proved a bigger battle for morale was getting through the delays. During the jury selection, the judge timelined the trial. Jury selection - which ran longer than anticipated - would take a few days, the trial about a week, and deliberation would be up to us. No matter what, we should be done before the end of February - keeping in mind that my original summons was for February 7th.

Yet plenty of time went by with us either sitting in the jury box waiting, outside the hall waiting, etc. Courts seem to operate their breaks in the same manner of musicians - five means ten, ten means twenty - except worse. Often, and by often I mean almost daily, a fifteen-minute delay would turn into an hour fifteen minute delay. If we were lucky, we were in the jury box, and had access to the jury room, the Folgers instant coffee, and the padded chairs of the jury box. If we were unlucky, it was out in the hallway with the unpadded wooden benches.

A typical day, for example, would go like this:

Arrive at the court at 10am. Wait 15 to 45 minutes, depending. Take our seats in the jury box. Wait another 10 to 15 minutes. Listen to 45 minutes to an hour of child molestation testimony. Then, LUNCH TIME for 90 to 105 minutes, depending. Come back at 1:30pm-1:45pm. On good days, wait in the jury box until 2:15pm or 2:30pm. On bad days, wait in the hallway (with stiff wooden benches) until 3:00pm or 4:00pm. Listen to more child molestation testimony. Take a 15 minute break at 3:00pm (on good days). Wait another 15 minutes after the break. Listen to more testimony. Go home at 4:30pm, have a nice day, see you tomorrow.

I began calculating the delays based on a simple formula - take whatever length of time the judge gives, double it, add another fifteen minutes, and round up. That would be the bare minimum. So if the judge said, “Take a fifteen minute recess”, we wouldn’t really start hearing testimony for forty-five minutes.

That was how things worked. Initially, I thought the delays were exceptional, and that things would eventually get rolling. It simply didn’t happen. Something always came up, and we never really knew what was going on. And just when it seemed like we were gaining some momentum, one of the attorneys would have an objection and everyone would rush off into the judge’s chambers. Save for us, the jury. Sitting there waiting. Again. It soon became clear that there was no way we’d be done by the end of February.

By the time the prosecution rested, it was the first week of March.