And the people spoke...

I know some of you have lost entries…just ‘poof’ and it’s gone? Well, I lost a long list of nifty topics. It was not much, just a lot of rambles, but they were my rambles.
I’ll get to the jury duty details in a minute. I’ve got other, more boring stuff for you to wade through first.
One of my entries on my other blog back in November of last year was about my daughter’s and Hubby’s birthday. They share the same day, as does Dr. G, the doctor who delivered her and her older sister. In that entry, I added a little “Happy Birthday” shout-out to him as well. I mentioned him by name.
Fast forward to last month - a colleague of his did a google search of Dr. G’s name and he came across that blog. So he passed the info onto the doctor and the Dr. G emailed me! It’s been about 30 years since he moved away. We exchanged a few howdy’s and whatcha’s. He’s in his 70’s now and living in Virginia. For the record, he was a great guy and the best doctor I’ve ever had.
As some of you have noticed, I’ve been somewhat slow in posting entries. Much of it is due to me not being bored – Hubby’s not working out of town as much, and my keyboard is too loud to type “after-hours”.
Another reason is due to me having to attend to all those boring and mundane everyday activities like dishes, laundry and such; and then sometimes it was because I was either too busy or too lazy.
My daughter asked me to make a wedding gift for a friend of hers (which I did) and it didn’t turn out near as well as I wanted. It was an altered scrapbook album cover. I would give it a B or B- if I were grading it. Of course, I was aiming for an A+. I have this little perfectionist streak in me. I know handmade items will look handmade, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? I just don’t want it to look like a 3 year old did it.
I’m also trying to sort through tons of medical ‘Explanation of Benefits’ forms in order to get reimbursed by our Flex plan. I couldn’t find a couple of claims that I needed, so I asked the insurance company to mail me copies. They mailed me copies of ALL of my medical claims. And since this has been a busy year for me, medically speaking, they were numerous.
Plus, I’m trying to do some “fall” cleaning for an upcoming garage sale and I’m finding it hard to part with my things. I’m a packrat and I know it. And it’s mostly junk, but still…
For instance, I have a sunflower yellow Fiestaware cream pitcher and sugar bowl set. It’s not a reproduction, my mom had it way back when. Do I keep it or sell it? How much? Stuff like that. From my granny, I’ve got paddle-like wool comber thingies, some old butter molds, 1920’s post cards - stuff like that. I keep it because I like it, but I’ve got no place to display it in this small house.
I’ve also got lots of other folk art type items that I’ve picked up over time. Most of it is nothing but junk, junk, junk.
Like this – about 5 years ago, I bought about 20 of these small, stuffed baby dolls (about 4” tall) and they all have different facial expressions. They were so adorable, I had no idea what I was going to do with them; I just thought they were cute. Now they are in a box somewhere. I have extra sheets and tablecloths. I have a ton of extra pots and pans and dishes that I don’t need.
Not to mention jeans. Levis, Wranglers, what have you. I probably have at least 30 pairs, all different sizes. At one time I was going to make a quilt out of denim. Or potholders. Or something.
Nonetheless, out it all goes. I promise.
However, I must say in my defense, I was raised mostly by my grandparents and they had that Great Depression mentality that required you to keep everything…”just in case”, you know?
Anyway, I’m going to use the money that (hopefully) the garage sale brings in to celebrate with Baby Jack, who by the way will be One Year Old next month. We’re going to visit him and be attendees at his birthday party. We leave on the 18th.
It’s so sad not be able to visit with him much. Even worse, they’ll be moving somewhere else next year. I hope the Navy keeps them in the USA.
Isn’t it sad how you see actors doing a guest role on a TV show. They are the same age as you, and they look really, really OLD?
Ok, about this jury duty thing. This was my third time to be summoned for the process.
The case before us was a Felony DUI (driving under the influence). In Texas, having two prior convictions for DUI makes the third one a felony offense.
The defendant was a diabetic, 69 year old man who, on 6/11/04 @ 8:50pm, ran a stop sign and crashed his car into a tree. He then walked to a nearby house and entered the garage.
According to the two witnesses who helped him out of the car, he smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated. They called 911 and tried to stop the man from walking/stumbling away.
Approximately 15 minutes after the crash, a state trooper found the man crouching in a nearby garage, hiding behind a table. The trooper testified that in his judgment, he believe the man was intoxicated. The man was not given a field sobriety test at the scene because he indicated to the trooper that he was injured. The trooper could not continue and turned the man over to the EMTs for immediate care.
About 40 minutes after the wreck, while at the hospital, the man tested positive for the ‘follow the finger eye test’ (I can’t remember the technical name for it). Because of medical testing that the hospital did (EKG, x-rays, etc.), the man’s blood alcohol level was not tested until approximately 2 hours after the accident. At that time, it showed a concentration of .14% (nearly twice the legal limit).
Could we find him guilty without reasonable doubt? Reasonable doubt...see, that’s where they get you. It's not as easy as you'd think. Some doubt, yes. Reasonable doubt...hard to define.
In Texas, the legal definition of Driving Under the Influence is:
Having consumed a substance that would cause impairment of mental faculties OR;
Having consumed a substance that would cause impairment of physical faculties OR;
Having a blood alcohol level of 0.8%; while operating a motor vehicle.
According to the prosecutor, the defendant was driving while intoxicated, with a suspended driver’s license and was found hiding in a garage after wrecking his car.
The defendant’s story was that he had driven to the store at his wife’s request, lost control of his car on loose gravel, slid into a tree and then walked to a nearby friend’s house in order to call for help. He began to drink the vodka (from a bottle that he had previously stashed in the garage) in order to prevent an anxiety attack.
He testified that it was then that he became intoxicated and not when his car hit the tree.
He did not deny being intoxicated. He denied being intoxicated while he was driving.
His story was possible, right? And you have to remember that all of the physical evidence that the prosecutor entered into the record was acquired after the defendant said he drank the alcohol.
So it all came down to the testimonies. Several people testified against him, but all but two of those encountered him –according to his testimony- after he drank the alcohol. One person, besides the defendant, testified in his defense. His wife. And that was a sad sight.
So we had to decide his guilt or innocence based on the defendant’s testimony and the testimony of those two witnesses who were with him at the accident scene.
Could a 220 pound, self-professed alcoholic walk 200 yards, then find (in the dark) a hidden bottle and consume approximately 16 oz. of vodka? Would he have become intoxicated within 15 minutes? Would he have been able to stand up? To even talk? Why did he not tell anyone this?
It took more than 3 hours to discuss our thoughts and decide. The verdict had to be unanimous. Some of the jurors believed the defendant’s testimony. Some of the others (me being one of them) found some of his testimony to be unbelievable.
Eventually, we believed that he did not have enough time to become intoxicated, based on the timeline of when the car hit the tree and when the trooper found him in the garage.
AND
We believed his physical faculties were impaired when he failed to control his car at an intersection, causing it to crash into a tree.
AND
We believed his mental faculties were impaired when he decided to walk away from the accident and consume alcohol, knowing that law enforcement officials and medical authorities were coming. We also believed his mental faculties were impaired to the point that he did not realize that the consumption of alcohol at that time would damage his credibility.
We had been told earlier that if we found the defendant guilty that after we gave the court our decision, then we would enter into a second phase of the trial concerning punishment. During all the deliberating and discussing, it became apparent to all of us that we felt sorry for the old guy and that he needed help. I believe that we all thought that his sentence should involve some sort of behavior therapy.
After we passed judgment and the judge announced our verdict of guilty, his lawyer stated that the defendant would prefer that the court would decide the punishment and not the jurors.
What a mistake. This judge is not known for his leniency. We would have been far easier on him than the judge, I’m sure. I hope he gets the help he needs. I don’t know what his sentence is, but I’ll let you know when I do.
But you know what? Between all the
"Objection, your Honor"s,
the "Sustained"s,
and
the "Overuled".s,
the scariest part for me was when my cell phone announced a "Message recieved" notice with two very loud beeps during the prosecutor's closing arguments.
Argh....
And by the way - I don’t think all those political, left-wing nuts (like Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry - all those people who don’t understand what ‘ Separation of Church and State’ really means) – I don’t think they realize how centered we are in our spiritual beliefs - we began our deliberation with a prayer.
On a side note of how things work sometimes...I called my little sister, "The Tough Jailer" when it was all over. I told her who the defendant was and she said, "Oh, ya'll didn't convict him, did you? I know he's guilty, but it's sad. He takes 12 medications a day. He's a nice old man."
The moral of the story is Don't drink and drive unless you want to go to prison.

My other blog? http://texasmammie.spaces.live.com Ya'll come visit, ya' hear?