Dan’s Papers October 1, 2010 danshamptons.com Page 22
Jury
(continued from previous page)
“I want to thank you all for coming,” he said. “As citizens, you are fulfilling your duty.” He then asked for us all to rise, and he asked the court officer to administer the oath to us all. We all raised our right hands and, chanting in unison, did so. Then we sat down. Now the judge told us about the case that was in his courtroom. There were charges to be considered against one Bill Smith (name changed to protect the innocent) who was one of four people who had been alleged to have committed crimes in Ronkonkoma, New York. “These charges are only alleged,” he said. “They are not evidence, not proof of guilt. It will be your job, if selected, to decide if these allegations are true. I will read you the charges. There are four people on trial. But you will be judging only one of these people, Bill Smith. You will not be judging the other three. So here are the charges. “Bill Smith has been charged, along with the other three people, Fred Bentley, Joe Jones and Patty Merritt as a first charge of the crime of breaking and entering a private home in Ronkonoma, Long Island, on or about August 15, 2009 at 3:00 in the morning.” That doesn’t sound so bad, I thought. “Bill Smith has been charged, along with the other three people, Fred Bentley, Joe Jones and Patty Merritt as a second charge of the crime of breaking and entering a private home in Ronkonoma, Long Island, on or about August 15, 2009 at 3:00 in the morning for the purpose of committing burglary.” That’s a little more serious, I thought.
“Bill Smith has been charged, along with the other three people, Fred Bentley, Joe Jones and Patty Merritt of the crime of breaking and entering a private home in Ronkonoma, Long Island, on or about August 15, 2009 at 3:00 in the morning for the purpose of committing burglary and as a third charge of committing burglary while carrying a gun.” Uh oh, I thought. “Bill Smith has been charged, along with the other three people, Fred Bentley, Joe Jones and Patty Merritt of the crime of breaking and entering a private home in Ronkonoma Long Island on or about August 15, 2009 at 3:00 in the morning for the purpose of committing burglary while carrying a gun as a fourth charge of assaulting one Harry Hendrick who is not being accused of this crime.” This is even worse, I thought. Then I began to think that this was beginning to sound like the song “A Partridge in a Pear Tree” where it goes “five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.” There were all together 14 charges against this man. It took more than a half an hour to read them. When you pieced them together, you found that these four had broken and entered a home in Ronkonkoma in the middle of the night to commit burglary. Two of the men, one of whom was Bill Smith, carried loaded guns, and Bill Smith and one of the others assaulted and beat up Harry Hendrick, robbed him, fired shots into the ceiling, then committed the burglary, then beat up two women who were with him, all of
which they did in the presence of a minor. And I thought, oh my God, this is going to take a long time, this trial. And it’s going to cost millions. It did not take but a moment for the judge to move on to the topic of how long we would be out of commission with the rest of our lives. “I want to give you a time frame of how long this trial will take,” he said. “I do not want to err on the side of being shorter than it will be. So I will give you the outside dates. “Today, tomorrow and Thursday we will devote to picking the 14 jurors we need for this trial, 12 jurors and two alternates. Then, the trial will begin on Friday, October 1. We expect it will not last longer than Thursday, November 4.” I am thinking—they’re guilty, they’re guilty. Let’s get this over with and go home. And I am thinking why couldn’t I have gotten assigned to a trial about a man who kicked a dog or something. All around me there were people listening with rapt attention to the judge. It seemed to me they were eager to get to be on this jury. Holy cow, I thought. Forget my visiting my daughter in San Francisco, forget the wedding I got invited to, forget editing Dan’s Papers, forget going to the Hamptons International Film Festival, forget moving into our new apartment, forget it all. “There are certain things, however, that will result in our excusing you from serving on this jury,” the judge said. (continued on page 24)