Here are some entries from my journal that I was writing at the beginning of the trial.
March 6th
Today was a tedious day in court. A very poorly done reading of a deposition—the attorneys need to practice better and have their exhibits in order. They didn’t know how to use the overhead projector and were constantly moving pictures and turning them around. It was hard to follow and irritating as all get-out. I was not happy with Mr. Mayer today. The heat of the room, the darkened atmosphere and the moving pictures set off a migraine that is still not gone. I’m finding it interesting to watch the plaintiff build his case, but boy is it getting old. They keep going over the same facts over and over again with different witnesses. A few inconsistencies are coming up, but minor. And it’s getting boring. I want to say—get on with it—we know what happened on 31 March 06. But I can’t. Wayne Bush was on the stand today and I hope the pace picks up after the plaintiff meticulously tries to establish his case and portray the director of public works as an uncaring, ineffective, irresponsible party. It’s not working for me because I can see that he was doing what he thought was right with the resources that he had. But then I’m sure there will be more testimony that will make it clearer (or not) about the causation of this awful event. And I can see why this was brought to trial. I can also see that if the plaintiff makes its case it will mean changes to the SOP for a small town like Mill Valley. I guess this says a lot about litigation. A horrible tragedy occurs and someone has to be responsible and then all of the safeguards get put in place. If nothing else it will certainly show how important it is to say the right thing and not to promise anything.
Mr. Dudak—the field engineer—who first observed the slide was on the stand. He was dressed in a nice sport coat and tie. He had a terrible stutter which I imagine was made much worse because he was nervous. He was a believable witness, as is Mr. Bush. I can see how Mr. Bush is being very careful to not fall into any traps that Mr. Mayer is trying to set. And Mr. Smith is working hard at trying to proof that perhaps someone is mistaken. There was a wrestling match over who took one photograph and when it was taken today. I don’t remember when or if it was cited when put into evidence.. More will be revealed.
March 10, 2009
Today was another difficult day. Wayne Bush, the director of public works for the city of mill valley, got the flu over the weekend and it caused vertigo so he has to stay in bed. They had to rearrange the witness today and it caused us to waste about 2 and half hours of court time today. The first witness today was a relative of Lisa’s, a guy in the construction/road work business. Lisa is his wife’s aunt. He went to the site mid morning the day of the event. He described what the house and site looked like and helped with getting the mud off of the site. He described how atrocious the conditions were. They didn’t find Walt the first day, not until the second day and they had trouble getting his body out, his leg was trapped by some debris and they asked about amputation to get his body out. They also showed us picture of his body before they removed it from the site. It was difficult to make out what we were looking at, the second picture was easier to understand. His body was still covered in mud. It looked like he had fallen forward, perhaps he didn’t even see it coming. One arm was splayed up, the other down. They passed the photos around to the jury so they weren’t projected and Lisa didn’t have to see them. That was kind. I hope his passing was swift and painless.
The first witness after lunch recess was a civil engineer, Irving Schwartz. Bald man with a beard, looks like Uncle Leo in Seinfeld. As he was describing what they had surveyed and how they got the information on the slide area. His smile seemed like a sneer and it seemed inappropriate for what he was describing. The plaintiff still needs to do a better job of their visuals, but it was much better than on Friday which was about to send me over the edge.
After the first civil engineer we had a second one who specialty was hydrology. He had wiry curly brown hair, glasses and a beard. He wore a sport court. He reminded me a bit of a cross between RM and WV. For an engineer he was well spoken and did a really good job of leading the jury through the technical information of run-off and hydrology modeling. He even used a PowerPoint and did a good job. He was an expert witness. I can see where the plaintiff is trying to lead us and I’m not sure I want to go there with them yet, but there is a long way to go and much more information to get and digest. I actually find it interesting but I know the other jurors are struggling with some of the technical information.
Lisa was wearing a lovely teal colored top and it looked very nice on her with her grey hair and skin. She wears it well. The attorneys were all rather blasé. Al Mayer, a short man, wore a dark blue suit with a periwinkle shirt. He had grey hair. He can also get a bit snippy. Mr. Smith, is a tall man, with the traditional bald pattern. He does a good job of being respectful to witnesses although he does get a bit edgy when Mr. Mayer objects to what he asking. The second chair for the defense is a young woman with long brown hair and bangs. She is constantly taking notes and watching the jury.
We now have a refrigerator and a microwave in the jury room as well as a coffee maker. Someone always brings in a treat of some kind.
March 13th
This has been a long stressful week. I had no idea that doing jury duty would be so very tiring. But six hours of active listening to a lot of technical jargon really takes a lot out of you. This week we had almost a full day from the hydrologist, and over a full day from a civil engineer/geotechnical engineer. This morning we had another civil engineer who was testifying about Mr. Bush and the standard of care. Still no clue what the right answer is and a lot of testimony to come. But I would guess that Mr. Bush’s job is in jeopardy.
The theatrics of the attorneys, particularly Mr. Mayer is a little much. He gets snippy, self-righteous and even disrespectful at times. That does not play well with me at all—he is walking a very fine line. It will be interesting to see how he does when he cross-examines the defense witnesses.
We also went on a site visit to the slide and the Guthrie home. The site was much steeper than it appeared on the model. Hillside Avenue is very narrow and winding. And the homes built around there are on slopes that are way too steep. It was easy to see the landslide area. But there was also a slope so that there shouldn’t be water standing if it was raining heavily.
The house was eerie and sad. It was destroyed. The bedroom as the back of the house was totally gone, the roof caved in the, the floor collapsed. The toilet paper was still in the holder. There was a muddy boot, and toiletries from the medicine cabinet strewn all over the ruins. The mirror over the sink was off the wall and broken. The house was covered with mud. It must have been quite lovely at one time. Don’t know how much they were able to get out. Most everything was gone, but it was really sad. That house should never of been on that location over a culvert or at the bottom of a ravine. They are really lucky nothing had ever happened—not just a slide, but water running down that ravine and not getting blocked up. There was really very little outdoor living space other than the deck. The rest of the property was way too steep to be usable—beautiful but not usable.
Down next to the culvert, on the rocks right before the culvert, at the place that Walter Guthrie died, there was a butterfly alight on the rocks—an orange and black butterfly—a monarch I think. It stayed there in the sun for quite a while. I first saw it on one side of the house and it was still there after I had walked around to the other side of the house and was there until we left. I think it was Walter’s spirit letting us know he was OK. I had asked to be able to sense if he was around, if there was anything he wanted us to know. I mentioned that I thought it was his spirit to the court reporter and she said she was thinking the same thing. It was powerful and I don’t think I will forget it.
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