Court baffled over what to do with blogger in press seat as jury selection begins for Salesian trial in LA Superior Court

By Kay Ebeling
I thought they were saying hello to me so I waved back. But those weren’t welcome smiles on the attorneys’ faces as jury selection began for the Salesian cases jury trial in LA Superior Court. As I hunched down I could hear whispering from the judge and lawyers at the front. You know how you can tell someone is talking about you.

The clerk said I had to move from the first to the second row. Then the judge and lawyers beckoned and he picked up a blue easy chair and lifted it over the railing so I could sit in the aisle. The blue chair was on wheels so I could move up and down the aisle as the attorneys argued over where it was okay for me to sit. I rolled down the aisle when jurors were lining up in back, I rolled up to the back when they were talking with a juror up front.

Then from all the way in the back I heard, "If she’s going to be in here all the time, we need to move to another room.” It was a female shriek, I doubt it was the judge, but I was too far in the back to see. I was drawing fast, as I knew I better finish this sketch quick. In a kind of ceremony, the attorneys got up and walked up the aisle, right past me, and out the back exit. After lunch, I sat in my blue chair in the aisle, but the chairs up front were vacant. The judge and attorneys were questioning jurors one by one in the other room.

The first issue for jurors is time, whether they can serve on a 30 to 35 day trial. The jurors still in the room want to plead hardship over serving 6 to 7 weeks. The other 300 or so potential jurors had gone home to return Monday May 5.

I hadn’t been there three minutes before I looked up and saw all the attorneys turned around and looking at me. Honest. I thought they were saying hello. So I waved hello and smiled. Okay not proper protocol in the middle of jury selection but I’d just fought metro rails and buses for more than an hour to get there, they're not always reliable, and I was flushed, it was hot, I was late. The two front rows may have been filled with reporters two hours earlier when proceedings began, but now as usual, I was the only one.

It was absurd. First they made me move from the front row to the second row, then out into the aisle. Then up and down the aisle and into the back. Now potential jurors who saw all that are probably Google searching to find out who I am. If the law had just left me alone, I would have heard very little. I watch Law & Order. I know not to interfere with jurors.

At one of the approved points on the aisle, I settled down to continue my sketch and a juror who was still within earshot of me said something like, Do you come here often? And I said, “Shh, I'm a journalist, I'm not allowed to talk to you.” But it was too late.

Javier stood over me with new orders from the judge. He and a security guard pushed my chair on wheels up the aisle all the way to the back. When they asked the jurors to start lining up ten at a time in the back, I just had to wheel down the aisle to the center of the room. But by then the judge and attorneys were gone.

Nobody can figure out what to do with me. I'm the press, for what it's worth, moreso than any other media in the city when it comes to the Clergy Cases, they have to let me stay there, but NOBODY wants me there, the judge plaintiff or defense lawyers.

I sit where Javier tells me to sit. He comes back a minute later and says sit in that seat instead. So I sit in the second row. Get settled, take out my laptop fold my case get out my sketch board look up see all those faces. I end up on wheels rolling up and down the aisles. That still doesn't satisfy them and they all get up and leave. All because of me and my blog.

That look on their faces stays with me until next morning. I settle down and start sketching.

If I go back next Monday I’ll be set up with my own little easy chair on wheels. But I won’t be able to see or hear anything as it will all be going on “in the other room.”

From my perch in the back, if I sat on my feet, I could barely see the proceedings up front. I angled, squirmed up to see over the heads so I could at least finish my sketch. I knew I better draw that picture fast as I could hear a little of what was being said, even from the back. There was a lot of tension about me being in the room.

Funny thing is I’ve felt that way so many times before. . .

We broke for lunch. Javier said come back at 1:30 but don’t be waving to the jurors. Maybe that was it. When I first sat down in my first approved seat, this black lady with white hair in the jury pool gave me such warm smile I had to smile back.

I promised Javier, "Don't worry, I won't even make eye contact with anyone."

The irony is not lost on me. You see, I started this blog mostly to try to break the concrete block of isolation that's bound my life for about 50 years. I want to meet people, get out more, sit over coffee and klatch. I don't do those things very often. Normal people do those things. I always end up in a room by myself.

Now here I am in a room with a few hundred people and it’s okay for me to be there, I even get the most comfortable chair, but I can’t interact with any person in the room. I thought the press covered jury selection.

Outside in the hall, I overheard the room number where they were sending jurors. I could have gone down there and followed a potential juror out of the room and gotten one or two to talk about the experience, tell me the questions they asked.

But hey, I watch Law & Order. I'm not stupid enough to mess with the jury.

It’s just, I'm just a blog. I don't know if the LA Times was there earlier, I got there late, I had to finish something for one of my other three jobs first.

As I left, Javier said to me, “She just doesn't want you to hear what they're saying to the jurors.” Isn't that my right? To hear what they say to the jurors?

Jury selection continues Monday May 5 in the morning and still on calendar for that afternoon at the Commonwealth courthouse is this (from online Superior Court Case Summary for JCCP4286)

05/05/2008 at 02:00 pm in department 308 at 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005

Motion to Compel

(FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS BY THE SALESIANS TOP'S REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS SET 5 AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF L.A. (RE BC308472))

That's regarding the next Salesian Case Jury trial scheduled for August 25th. The remaining motions in limine in the Miani case coming up must have been worked out between attorneys behind closed doors. . . .

I’ll write about the upcoming motion to compel next post.

Onward. . .