I had to serve on a jury this week. A lot of people seem to be interested in the case and how it turned out. It's odd how something this serious can affect you emotionally for a few days. It's the same feeling I had when my work was raided by ICE and the ATF a few years back (for those who know that story). Maybe it only affects me in this way because being completely serious for two days straight is almost impossible for me.
The Prosecution story started off like this:
Back in 2006 an officer sees a car driving around 9 at night with its headlights off, doing about 10 miles an hour as it approaches a light. At the last minute it jerks suddenly in to the left hand turn lane. He finds this suspicious, pulls up behind it, and after the left hand turn, pulls the car over.
As he's asking for license and registration, etc. the officer notices that the driver is a bit flush, and has a faint odor of alcohol, so he asks her to step out of the vehicle and performs the horizontal gaze nystagmus test(The, "Follow this pen/light with your eyes" deal).
Apparently the officers look for 6 specific cues in this test. 3 or more indicate neurological impairment(Most often from consumption of alcohol). She had all six. The officer asks her to submit to some field sobriety tests and she says that she has arthritis and some long time physical injuries that may give inaccurate results. He asks her to take a breathalyzer and she readily agrees.
He was on a motorcycle. They transport her to a van where they can do the test, and she blows a .126. In AZ it's .08 or higher and you're not supposed to be driving.
At this point I was thinking, "Wrap this one up and we can all go home early. She's guilty." The defense hopped up and broke it down like this:
The lady had just left a restaurant where she had sampled a glass of wine, but ultimately decided not to order it. Her car had been valeted here. She has automatic headlights, and isn't really sure how they got to the off position. She didn't notice until the cop pulled her over.
The section of town she was driving through had a tremendous amount of confusing construction at that time. (I personally know that to be true because it's about 2 miles from where I live). They were also working at night, so they had a bunch of huge lights out there. The area is next to one of the bigger shopping centers in Phoenix, so it's already very well lit.
She explained that she wasn't sure if it was "this left" or "the next one" to get to the Fry's grocery store she intended to go to. (Again, I know the area, makes sense to me. It's confusing) That's the explanation for the sudden jerking to the left hand turn lane. She also doesn't normally drive at night because of a previous injury, and therefore was a little overly cautious.
Thirty years ago she was in a really serious car accident where her car was "run over" by a semi truck. She spent a decent amount of time in a coma, and months in physical therapy. She has some lingering physical issues and nerve damage. Both sides seemed to agree that this could possibly cause failure of the eye test, although the prosecution obviously thought it was much less likely than the defense.
One of the cues that officers use to test if you're drunk is to ask you questions while you get your license and registration. Apparently the ability to multi-task is one of the first things to go normally. She passed this just fine. She never slurred any speech, or had a loss of balance, or any other visual indications of being drunk. During the time the officer was following her, he noted nothing other than perfect driving.
He then went on for about 4 hours challenging the breathalyzer test itself. Apparently this particular machine had exceptions starting one week after the incident. Within a month it was sent back to the manufacturer for two months of repair. A few months after that, the head of the company that makes the machine came out to perform repairs on the machine and did something that neither side knew to the machine. Six months after the DUI arrest, that machine was decommissioned.
The defense also called as an expert witness, a toxicologist. This guy also happened to be the man who worked for the city of Phoenix in the crime lab in 2006, and he quit because he was upset with the department and their records keeping. He said that he felt the results in this case were "Scientifically Questionable". The company that made the breathalyzer has never agreed to testify in a case and has constantly refused requests to view the source code to the machine.
The driver asked for a blood test. The officer, even though qualified to give one, refused. Apparently it wasn't police policy to give one unless the case was serious. If it was "serious" then a blood test was always given. Since 2006, city of Phoenix has switched to only using blood tests. The police told her that she could go somewhere like a hospital and get an independent test.
She said she had a friend take her to 3 different hospitals, but the soonest any would see her is 5 hours. She gave up at that point.
There are, obviously, a lot of other facts to the case, and I'm sure I've forgotten to mention a few. In the end, my gut feeling was that she had done it. She was most likely a wealthy lady. She got a really good lawyer, and was trying to get out of it.
That being said, I still had reasonable doubt. I work on software. The chances of there being a bug seem possible. The breathalyzer was done an hour and a half after the pull over and she blew a .126. .1 is when the average person is supposed to lose fine motor skills. .15 is where you lose major motor skills.
It seemed odd to me that she had no other visible signs of being drunk. No stumbling, no bad driving, no issue retrieving her license/registration.
The other 5 jurors didn't see it that way. The most vocal was a 60 year old republican looking dude whose basic argument was, "Test says she did it. She did it". I remained firm with, "If there was something else to back up a 'scientifically questionable' test result, then I might be inclined to agree."
There was one dude who was most upset that the "Expert in toxicology only had a masters degree." It was his feeling that to be an expert on anything required a Phd. That seemed to be his strongest argument that the test was in fact valid.
The other 3 jurors seemed to have sort of succumbed to mob mentality, and just went along with the pack.
In the end I stuck to my guns and we wound up with a hung jury. The old dude seemed really pissed off at me, bordering on yelling towards the end. The more upset he got, the more calm and logical I got. This seemed to piss him off even more.
He basically told me that I was calling the police officers liars, and discrediting them and their many years of experience. Oddly enough, that's part of what sold me on the not-guilty. All 3 officers who testified were specifically trained in DUI, and not a single one noticed anything else to indicate she was drunk? It just seemed odd. I held everything they said to be true.
As we walked out he mumbled under his breath something like, "I don't even want to think about the amount of tax payer money you've just wasted on this"
