Jury Duty and Stardust

So as promised, the case I was selected to be an alternate juror on ended on Tuesday afternoon after about 25 minutes of deliberation. I will summarize the case now:

The parents of a young boy were suing the Torrance Unified School District for an event that occurred two years ago. When the boy was 5, he was involved in a soccer-like game with a teaching assistant and other boys where the boys and the teaching assistant would take turns kicking the ball back and forth between each other. On one such occasion, the teaching assistant kicked the ball and it struck the kid on the right wrist. The boy cried out in pain, was taken the the nurses office and then Harbor UCLA where it was discovered he had fractured both his ulna and radius. The parents were suing based on the grounds that the teacher was being negligent in her activity with the children and was responsible for the broken bones.

Well, now that you know the situation, here’s what it took 3 days to cover in court. The ball the children and teaching aid were playing with was one of those small (about 14″ diameter) squishy, rubber red balls. A doctor brought in by the plaintiff admitted that the ball could not have caused the bone fractures but a fall could have; therefore the boy must have fallen from the impact of the ball. Well, the problem is that no one saw the boy fall and the boy does not remember falling. In the end, regardless of endless witness testimonies, the plaintiff failed miserably to establish negligence on the part of TUSD. The teacher’s assistant was doing what she normally did on a regular basis with the children that day and nothing was out of the ordinary. While the boy did suffer broken bones, there was no hard evidence that the teaching assistant activity caused it. He might have fallen while running or whatever. It was stupid and the right verdict was cast by the jury 11 to 1 that the school district was not negligent as was not responsible for what had happened to the child.

That’s pretty much it, the case was frivolous and incredibly weak once all the facts came out. I remember in the plaintiff’s closing one comment he had made. During the course of the trial, one witness had indicated that the boy was leaning over with his shoulders down before the teaching assistant had kicked the ball to him. The witness then demonstrated the pose, which to me, looked like a football linebacker getting ready before a play. In his closing statement, the plaintiff said the boy was obviously in a dangerous and precarious position that was obviously unstable. Now, from my experience, you actually have GREATER balance when you’re hunched over with your shoulders slightly down because it’s like you’re bracing yourself for potential impact. The plaintiff’s counsel also indicated he had 3 small children of his own and that at 5 years of age, the were obviously too young to play such a dangerous game. Give me a break, that lawyer must be like the stupidest man alive. There’s more things about the case that I could describe as ludicrous and just retarded, but I think I got my fill. I also served my duty for at least one year and apparently, I also made $45.00 from serving 3 days (they don’t pay for the first day — bastards). Woohoo, time to go to Sizzler!

So anyway, it’s Saturday night now and I just got in from seeing Stardust. It was a good movie and if I was still in the habit of buy DVD’s, it would probably land on my list of films to buy. If I ever get a Bluray player though, it probably would not be on my list. The special effects were good but there were times when I just thought things had horribly awkward juxtaposition. Not sure if things would look that way in real life but some things just looked fake (similar to how the river scene in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe looked fake). Aside from the visuals though, it was a predictable yet enjoyable story. I don’t know that i would call it a modern day Princess Bride but I can see how some would make that comparison (there’s just a lot more humor in the Princess Bride than this film). Anyway, if you rent this film, you won’t be missing much but it’s definitely worth a go at least once.