Jury Duty

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I served on a Jury in San Diego in the late 1990’s. It was a criminal Attempted Assault and Battery trial against a friend of an Attorney who was renting office space from a Paralegal who owned an office building in Chula Vista, California. The case was that the Paralegal who owned the office building (the Plaintiff) was suing the Attorney who was renting office space from him claiming that when he went into the Attorney’s office to speak with him over issues he was having with the Attorney he found a thug sitting at the Attorney’s desk holding a baseball bat. The Paralegal quickly left the office and filed the lawsuit claiming that the Attorney was intimidating him with Attempted Assault and Battery.

My thought as a Juror was that AN ATTORNEY WHO HAS HIMSELF AS A CLIENT HAS AN ATTORNEY WHO IS A FOOL and that applied to this Paralegal as he was representing himself. Here is the very first round of questions.

The Defense Attorney’s first witness was the Paralegal who was also the Plaintiff. Here is the back and forth as I remember it:

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  Have you ever heard of a business in Chula Vista named Cafe Legale?

PARALEGAL (PLAINTIFF):  No.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  I will ask you again. Have you ever heard of a business in Chula Vista named Cafe Legale?

PARALEGAL (PLAINTIFF):  No.

She asked him the same question a dozen different ways including specifically if he owned that business called Cafe Legale in Chula Vista and he answered No to every way the question was answered.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  Your Honor I would like to introduce this document into evidence for this trial. It is a filing with San Diego County for a Fictitious Business Name of Cafe Legale in Chula Vista, California.

Judge looks at the document and enters it as evidence. Defense Attorney brings document for filing for Fictitious Business Name within San Diego County to the Witness who is the Paralegal and the Plaintiff. She shows it to him and points to the document.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  What is the name of the business requested on this form for filing for Fictitious Business Name?

PARALEGAL (PLAINTIFF):  Cafe Legal.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  Would you please tell the Court who applied for this Fictitious Business Name and who signed the form?

PARALRGAL (PLAINTIFF):  My name is on the form and I signed it.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  Didn’t you respond, under Oath, on the witness stand, more than a dozen times that you’ve never heard of the business in Chula Vista named Cafe Legal, that you are not the owner of that business, and you know nothing about it? But now you admit you own the business and you filed the document with San Diego County to legally have the rights to the Fictitious Business Name of Cafe Legal? Your Honor I’m done with this witness!

What did I think, as a Juror, at that point in the trial meaning the very first question session? I thought if this guy, a Paralegal who should know better, lied under Oath a dozen times on the first question, there’s no way I could believe anything else he said.

I will not go into all the details but the bottom line is the person harassing everyone else was the Paralegal who owned the company Cafe Legal. He terrorized and threatened everyone. He even illegally represented himself as an Assistant to the Attorney who rented office space from him, and signed up clients and when those clients came to see the Attorney of course the Attorney had no clue who these people were.

We obtained a unanimous NOT GUILTY verdict against the Attorney and his hired protection man. after the trial I waiting for the thug to get off the phone and then I asked if I could talk to him. I told him I was on his Jury and he got the Not Guilty Verdict because all the Plaintiff, the Paralegal did, was lie under oath. Then, under my breath, I said to the thug, I KNOW YOU DIDN’T WHACK THE JERK WITH THE BASEBALL BAT BUT SEEING WHAT A JERK HE WAS IN THE COURTROOM I WISH YOU HAD BEAT HIM WITH THE BASEBALL BAT.

The man thanked me for serving on his trial.

Then the Attorneys on the part of the Plaintiff, the Paralegal, stopped me in the hallway and she asked me straight up why we found the Defendant Not Guilty. I told her bluntly YOU SENT WITNESS AFTER WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION TO THE WITNESS STAND AND EVERY WITNESS BLEW UP IN YOUR FACE. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD DON’T SEND WITNESSES TO TESTIFY WHO ALL TURN ON YOU.