Special guest today. I received a lengthy email from one of the jurors in the Craig Berkman/Arthur Andersen case, and I’ve republished most of it below. The juror is Karmen, a woman, who identifies herself as a juror who sat on the recent Berkman trial. Here is her account, which I’ve edited just a bit for brevity and clarity.  I’m fascinated by her account and hope you will be, too.

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Hi David,

Thank you. Yes, it was a lot of work. There were over 500,000 pieces of paper in this case, fortunately we didn’t see them all though, we saw the same (approx 200 over & over & over :) This was my first time serving on a jury, so that was an experience in itself. I had no idea how it worked exactly or what to expect, and certainly didn’t think it would last for so long.

Its nothing like what you see on TV. The attorney’s crack jokes, and even Judge Hodson laughed and surprisingly, he didn’t have to use his gavel, not even once. Closing arguments take 20mins on TV, but ours took all day.

I know it was very hard going into that jury room during breaks and not being able to talk about the case, it was the elephant in the room we couldn’t acknowledge. So we scrutinized and talked about everything else attorney’s tie’s, the “theatrics” in the courtroom, wondering who the people sitting in there everyday were, and we played a lot of scrabble.

I didn’t always keep a straight face, or keep from rolling my eyes in the courtroom. It’s annoying & frustrating when the evidence is right there, yet someone is trying to tell you it’s not what it obviously is, or to listen to a witness who says nothing but “I don’t recall” for 2 hours. More than once I honestly thought “They must think we’re stupid”.  Well, none of us were.

I was very impressed with the Bullivant attorney’s & Mr. Fortino, and I think they did a wonderful job of representing the plaintiffs, and obviously proved their case to us without a doubt.  Mr. George even impressed me; he did a good job with what he had to work with, as far as the evidence, etc. But it was a weak case.

It was a little difficult seeing Mr. Berkman in there everyday, because he’d make eye contact with us and smile, and I hated that. I didn’t like it when the witnesses did that either, but you really have no choice but to keep looking at them when they do it. I understand why they do it, but it was difficult.

Our first witness was Jordan Schnitzer, and I really liked that guy on the stand. He wasn’t intimidated at all. He took no crap and got his licks in as fast as he was getting them.

The most difficult part was deliberating. I felt bad for Mr. Berkman, as a person. But I wasn’t there to see him as a person, I was there to weigh the evidence, and determine what (if any) damages resulted from that evidence.

When it came to damages however, I still had to occasionally remind myself that WE were not ruining him, WE were not tarnishing his name, WE were not the thieves, WE didn’t try to hide anything, and that whatever we decided was not OUR fault, but his…. He did this to himself, it was just our job to determine what was due to the plaintiffs and not to worry about how old, pathetic, broke or ruined he was as a result of his actions. But that wasn’t always easy, it was emotionally draining at times.. the whole thing was.

You realize the responsibility you have.  It’s a lot of pressure, and its stressful. What’s even worse, is not being able to talk to anybody about the stress you’re under.

In the end, I stand behind our decision 100% for Craig Berkman & Arthur Anderson.

This whole thing has been a learning experience I will never forget, or regret doing, and I’m glad I was a part of it. I feel justice was served.

I had so many people telling me I should try to get out of jury duty, and what to do & say to accomplish that.

The funny thing is, I’m 37 and always hoped to be called for jury duty, I just never was until now. So I was actually hoping to be picked.. and I’m glad I was. I think everyone should do it if they can, at least once. For the experience.

I was fortunate enough that my job paid me my regular wages while I served, but not everyone who served with me got paid from their job. They did it on the $10 a day the court paid.. for 5 weeks!! I give them so much credit for not asking to be excused on those grounds.

We had a really great group of people, there were some tense moments, but for the most part we all got along & after spending so much time together, we really got to know each other.. 7 of us went for much needed drinks yesterday and I hope we’ll keep in touch.

So there you have it, some of this jurors thoughts…

Thank you for your kind words,

Karmen

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Karmen-Fabulous. Thanks to you and your peers for making our jury system work. It’s really one of the true strengths of our country, isn’t it?

David Sugerman

Tags: Berkman trial, juror, oregon trial lawyer, sugerman