bonniegrrl | The Jury is Out (Reply)

This week I served on a jury for the first time, ever. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea. I had to put my life on hold for a week as I sat quietly for hours in a stuffy room listening to testimony from expert witnesses (many of whom were pointless) and the defendants and so forth. But let me back up a tad.

Tuesday morning, I went to San Francisco's Civil Courthouse to sit and wait to be considered for a jury. I tried my best to get out of it with a rather believable hardship excuse, but not convincing enough. I ended up serving on a jury where an elderly man was suing MUNI for injuring his leg. During the trial I tried my best to keep an open mind, which isn't easy after riding the MUNI bus system for 10 years.

In the time I've been using MUNI I've seen drivers wait until people run to the doors, then they close them in their faces and drive off. I've seen drivers almost run down everything from little old ladies crossing the street to a crosswalk full of kids. Buses in San Francisco NEVER show up on time and when they eventually make it to the stop they're overcrowded in one bus, or barely anyone in them with 3 of the same bus line back to back to back. When I finally got a car I felt like my sanity returned. However, for the duration of this trial I rode MUNI Bus #16 B Express to get me back into the mindset of how MUNI operates. Ironically, the second day of the trial, I witnessed two people having the bus doors slam down on them as they exited -- which was just what the trial case was about.

The trial centered around a 74-year-old Chinese man who was exiting the Folsom and 3rd bus to transfer to another bus to get to his regular hang out spot in Chinatown. When he climbed off the bus one fateful Dec. 13 (a Friday no doubt), the doors closed to soon, hit his leg, ruptured a muscle and he was on his back on the ground in agonizing pain as the driver began to drive off. The driver stopped the bus once the passengers were screaming at him, and then an ambulance was called. Four years later, his case finally came to court and the old man sued the city for his medical bills, mental/physical distress and so on for $42,000. That's really not much. Personally, I would have sued MUNI for a hell of a lot more if it had been me.

My fellow jurors and I sat for 4 days listening to the lawyers present their cases. The old man's lawyer was seasoned, professional and sounded like he'd spent the last 25 years in a court room -- he was also a bit on the cocky side. But at least he appeared to know what he was doing.

The City's lawyer defending MUNI was -- it seemed -- fresh out of law school. I got the impression that this was her first case....ever. Her "ums," "uhs" and long pauses as she tried to figure out what to say next didn't bode well for the MUNI. She needlessly repeated over and over and over the same basic info we already knew from previous witnesses and common sense. Such as asking the old man's wife -- "You are married, correct?" after we already sat through an hour of her husband's testimony. And asking the man if he was from China, having the CHINESE interpreter answer yes. Duh. It really was beyond frustrating. I felt like I was back in 8th grade Civics class and I was watching a classmate pretend to be a lawyer. Her words were shaky, her objections barely audible and her witnesses pointless to the case at hand.

I think the saddest part of the whole trial was realizing beyond a doubt that indeed MUNI was at fault, but the old man's lawyer depended more on emotion than on actual facts about HOW the city messed up. We heard nonstop testimony about the man's injuries, about his wife's distress, about how he'll always walk with a cane and never be the same again. But both lawyers didn't bother to ask really crucial questions to give us real facts about what the driver should have done A when instead he did B. Half the time, the lawyers would dismiss witnesses without asking them the questions WE as the jury wanted them to ask. But we can't just raise our hands and ask our own questions. We have to go with what's presented and not what SHOULD have been presented.

So in the end, even though I was in a minority about my decision to be in favor of the old man and not MUNI, I had to turn around my initial decision based on the facts presented. For me, all the old man's lawyer had to ask was ONE SINGLE QUESTION -- What happens when you're exiting the bus doors (as in you're already walking through them) and the driver pushes a green button to disable the automatic doors? Do the doors which no longer have power close on you no matter what, or do the bumpers around the doors sense something is stuck in the door and stay open to let the person out? But that question was never asked. Sadly, if it was asked I imagine the man probably would have won his case.

And so I had to go with the presented evidence, and the old man got nothing. MUNI won because of a question that WASN'T asked, and not because the lawyer did a good job, or brought the right witnesses to the box. And that sucked. The City didn't earn that win. Their lawyer was horrible, the case was heartbreaking, and I got the impression that a few of the jurors were focused more on leaving then discussing the case anyway. (The guy sitting next to me was text messaging through most of the trial and kept whining to the judge at the end of every day that he needed to leave early for meetings.)

The whole experience was frustrating, and if anything it proved to me firsthand that our system doesn't really work in favor of the little guy. What would have happened if the lawyers were better or if the majority of the jurors cared about what was being said?

I also blame my addiction to "Law & Order". I wanted a nice and tidy TV ending. I wanted a surprise witness at the end to clear it all up. I wanted the driver to be tricked into telling the truth. I wanted the lawyers to be well-spoken, entertaining and thought-provoking. I wanted a judge that paid attention (I kept a tally page of all the times the judge yawned -- it filled 1/2 a page in 4 days.) And I wanted justice to be served. But it wasn't. The man never got his medical expenses paid. And considering the City spent over $6,000 alone on just one of their expert witnesses, you'd think they would just settle out of court instead of being so petty. This trial honestly made me despise the MUNI system even more.

On the bright side, I met some really cool people on the jury -- a funny guy who works with troubled teens at his youth center that he and his wife started, a woman who runs a book binding craft organization, and a group of some truly entertaining 20-something women who all had not only a sense of humor but a real sense of compassion (unlike Mr. Text Messenger). Plus I got to hang out downtown after the day ended (which I never do). And even though there were no Mayor Newsom sightings, I did my civic duty, even if justice wasn't served for a citizen who most needed it.