Department no. 103 Hon. Lance a. Ito, Judge

APPEARANCES: (Appearances as heretofore noted.)

(Janet m. Moxham, CSR no. 4855, official reporter.)

(Christine m. Olson, CSR no. 2378, official reporter.)

(The following proceedings were held in camera:)

THE COURT: All right. 1427 sent me the note, just for those of you who weren't up at the side bar, says: "I would like to discuss a personal matter regarding a privacy issue that should be handled as soon as possible. Thank you, 1427." So I'm going to ask you to step back here as soon as I get my bailiff who may be out searching. The reason we are here is we have an in courtroom bomb scare, so the sheriffs, in an abundance of caution, wanted to check the courtroom. Is there a chair that we can drag up?

MR. COCHRAN: Deirdra is doing that.

(Brief pause.)

(Juror no. 1427 enters chambers.)

THE COURT: 1427, why don't you have a seat there. Deirdra, why don't you get the door there. All right. Good morning, 1427. How are you today?

JUROR NO. 1427: Fine, thank you. I'm sorry to take you all away from your schedule. Just a little mishap that occurred yesterday.

THE COURT: You indicated you thought we should talk to you as soon as possible?

JUROR NO. 1427: Yes. It is regarding a privacy issue. Yesterday--some of the visitors bring us magazines, and it is common for us to get, you know, different types of magazines in here, but unfortunately sometimes we are able to get magazines in through some of the deputies and not through others. What happened yesterday, when my visitor left, I asked the deputies what did you do with my magazine. It wouldn't be a big deal, but this magazine happens to have my first and last name and address on it. What one of the deputies did was give this magazine to a visitor that did not come to visit me, and he--

THE COURT: So it still had the mailing label on it?

JUROR NO. 1427: Yes, it had the mailing label on it, and I had two visitors. When I walked out my first visitor, I asked him what are you going to do with this magazine? Are you going to give it back to my visitor to take home with them or are you going to hold on to it and have your deputies look through it and give it to me at a later time? And he started talking to the other deputies and didn't address me, and I just went on with my business.

THE COURT: Which deputy was this?

JUROR NO. 1427: Deputy "G".

THE COURT: Deputy "G".

JUROR NO. 1427: At the end, when I said good-bye to my second visitor, I said what happened to the magazine, because I didn't see it there, and I saw a woman with the exact same magazine in her hand, and I just thought oh, she just has the same magazine, but it so happened she walked out with my magazine and Deputy "G" put the magazine in her hand and he said, "Just take it with you." She didn't even want it.

THE COURT: What magazine was it?

JUROR NO. 1427: It was a fashion magazine, Cosmopolitan. It was no big deal because I have the exact same magazine in my room, I have like three issues of it in my room, but some deputies allow it and some don't and it is like they keep going back and forth and the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing sometimes. They just don't communicate with each other. And it wouldn't be a problem with me, but, you know, I just don't--you know, somebody has my first and last name and that is why I'm here, because it is a privacy issue. I could care less about the magazine.

THE COURT: No, I understand what the problem is. Okay. The mailing label and that--we should have a uniform way of dealing with that. You are right.

JUROR NO. 1427: Yes, uh-huh.

THE COURT: Okay. Anything else?

JUROR NO. 1427: No. That is--that is pretty much it.

THE COURT: How was the juggler?

JUROR NO. 1427: Oh, he was great. Everybody enjoyed him. He was great.

THE COURT: Okay. We are going back to a longer court day to try to get some more jury time in. I don't know if that has been communicated with you. Is there anything else that is going on that you think we ought to know about?

JUROR NO. 1427: Just it would really help if they got us out a little more, and every time we ask for something it just seems to take a month before something happens between the time we ask for it and the time that we get it, and it would really help.

THE COURT: For example, what have you asked for that has taken a long time?

JUROR NO. 1427: For like a trip to the beach. It is like--we finally got it on Friday, but it seems like it is so--those times are so few and far between. You know, it really helps to get us out. It makes a big difference. It is uplifting to our morale because it is very difficult to be in this type of situation and it makes a difference just to get out and be able to see nature and be surrounded by something other than just this concrete jungle that we are in.

THE COURT: Uh-huh. Okay. We've had a change in the mix of the jury recently. Has that changed anything? Any of the dynamics going on, better or worse?

JUROR NO. 1427: What do you mean by the mix? I noticed a great sense of relief amongst a lot of people.

THE COURT: With the last change?

JUROR NO. 1427: With the last change.

THE COURT: Okay.

JUROR NO. 1427: People just breathed a big sigh of relief and it just makes it a lot easier, a lot easier. It is one less thing to worry about, one less thing--I mean, your life, everything is so amplified in this type of setting and you don't have much privacy and that--that individual just made it all the more harder to be here.

THE COURT: All right. 1427, thank you for letting me know about that. I will talk to the sergeant and to Dinwiddie and we will make sure that there is a uniform policy on that.

JUROR NO. 1427: Okay.

THE COURT: All right. I'm sensitive to what the problem is. Thanks for coming in.

JUROR NO. 1427: Thank you.

THE COURT: Okay.

(Juror no. 1427 exits chambers.)

THE COURT: Bob, why don't you just prop that open. Why don't you all be seated. All right. This part of the record will be sealed. I will talk to the deputies about that. This is a relatively minor problem, but I understand why she is concerned about it.

MR. COCHRAN: Sure, sure.

(Sealed proceedings concluded.)