Jury Duty

This is about an intelligent, proud Mexican American who has lived and worked in Escondido for ten years. He is married with children. He has his own car with a remote phone in his car. He looks about thirty years old and is pleasantly plump but not fat, and he seems calm and peaceful. He wears a long sleeved shirt with the top buttoned but no tie. He acts respectful and wears a serious expression on his face. He is accused of chasing another car up and down many city streets, speeding up to fifty miles per hour, and going through stop signs without stopping. He admits to following the car. He said a cigarette was thrown from that car. It hit him on the face causing a small burn just under his left lip.

He says the carelessness of the driver who threw the cig caused him anger, so he following the car hoping to talk to the driver. The car he was following stopped at a convenience food and liquor store. He walked over to the driver’s rolled down window and discovered the driver was a young lady. He said in Spanish, “She looked like she had been in a fight because her face was swollen and she had been crying. She told me her name and that she had had a hard day because she had broken up with her boyfriend. When she began to sob, I patted her on the shoulder to comfort her. I lost my anger for her and felt sorry to see her so sad. After a minute a lady came from the store and greeted the young lady. They took her baby from the back seat and they went into the store.” The Mexican American got back in his car in no hurry to leave. He said a man came out and wrote down his car licence plate number.

The Mexican American told us under oath that he has never smoked cigarettes and never drank alcohol and that he will never do it. He said he tries to avoid any trouble but that his anger caused him to follow the car. He denies any sexual reason for patting the young lady’s shoulder.

When the young lady testified, her story was of being chased as if by a stalker for more than fifteen terrifying minutes. She stopped at the convenience liquor store because she had friends who worked there. She said she locked her doors, but he talked her into rolling down her window to talk. She said he complained she had hit him with a cigarette. She said she smokes but never with the baby in the car. She denied to him she had done anything to hurt him. She said he demanded to be paid, and she told him she had no money. She said he told her she could pay him in another way. They could go get a drink together. She said he stroked her hair and let his hand fall toward the side of her breast before she was rescued by her friend who worked in the store.

After hearing both sides of the story I felt there was no evidence he molested her. I believed she did throw a lighted cigarette from her window while driving. I think the lighted ash from the cigarette accidently flew into the window of the car just behind and to the right of her. I feel she told the lies about the Mexican because she was completely out of control emotionally, shaking and crying from fear and anger after being followed.

The jury trial lasted from Thursday through Monday. The deliberation began with ten out of twelve jurors feeling the cigarette was not an issue because they did not believe the Mexican. They did not believe his eighteen year old brother who said he saw the girl throw the cigarette out her window. At first they were ready to convict the man of sexually molesting a minor.

I argued strongly against the sexual charge until the others agreed to a lesser charge of simple battery for which he was found guilty. I do not know what the judge did to punish him. I only hope he will refrain from letting his anger get the better of him in the future.