Chapter 20 – Meet the Jurors
Thursday morning June 5, 2008 – 11:30 AM
As the jurors made their way back into the deliberation room, Newlan purposely lagged behind in a veiled attempt to apprise one of the court officer’s of his newly discovered connection to the case…and fortuitously for him, Brandon was conveniently standing by the doorway, so he gestured over to him with a tilted head signal, indicating that they needed to talk in private.
It took no time at all for the jurors to notice that Newlan was missing from the room, and the same heavyset female juror who seemed to be at odds with him from the get-go grumbled, “Now what’s the matter? It’s always something with that guy.”
Meanwhile, Newlan was standing out in the corridor pleading his case.
“Both of the attorneys mentioned that Breslin worked at Tex-Ray Defense Systems in Andover. Well it’s just my luck that my nephew happens to work there too, and it seems to me that this might be a conflict of interest.”
Not surprisingly, Brandon didn’t see it that way, and his solution was as simple as can be.
“No problem, just don’t mention anything about the case to your nephew,” advised Brandon, to which Newlan tersely replied, “what if someone finds out? For all I know, my nephew might be good friends with Breslin.”
Realizing that Newlan was upset, Brandon came up with a simple solution; “OK, OK, calm down…I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll get you an index card…you write down what’s on your mind, and we’ll make sure that Judge Gershwin reads your note.”
“Thanks…I just want to make sure that this doesn’t become an issue later on,” countered a contrite Newlan, to which Brandon understandingly replied, “No, it’s OK. You did the right thing by coming to us. That’s what we’re here for. Just don’t say anything to the other jurors.”
Brandon led Newlan into an empty conference room down the hall, and he handed him a blank index card, along with these elementary instructions; “just write down whatever it is that you want to tell the judge, and I’ll pass your note along to her.”
Newlan mulled the issue over in his mind for a minute or two before putting pencil to paper, and when he had completed voicing his fears, the card that got turned over to Judge Gershwin was noted as follows: