Happy Tuesday, friends!!
A couple of hopeful thoughts to start your day...
I'm feeling thankful and happy after our verdict yesterday. Today begins a new chapter of freedom and peace for Mr. Smith and his family, and it is well-deserved. It was the second time in my 17-year Court Reporting career that I have been adamantly for the Defendant in a jury case... I won't go into all the details here, but now that it's over, I'll say it was a First-Degree Murder charge in a situation that was obviously self-defense. Juries can be unpredictable, but this jury was in strong agreement with most everyone I've spoken with about it. It took them around 20 minutes total to deliberate and return with a unanimous verdict of Not Guilty on all counts - one of the shortest deliberations ever, and several of them teared up and hugged the Defendant and his wife on their way out of the courtroom. It was an emotionally draining week that ended with this epic and hopeful moment, a rare thing for me to experience at work, and I'm super grateful to see justice prevail here! ❤
It was also a delight to get to witness Ben Fu in the courtroom throughout all the hearings we've had in this case... he was the Defense attorney, and he. is. exceptional. Brilliant, thorough, quick-witted, and compelling! When you combine all that with the facts of this case, it was a closing argument worth watching. Chet called to catch up on Friday, and I filled him in on this trial, saying he was welcome to come and watch the closings if he wanted... and when he realized it was all really open to the public, he did! It was fun for all the CCC ladies to have some company, and hopefully he enjoyed watching it! ...He told me to let him know when our next trial would be, and I said, "Yeah, I'll call you in a couple years." lol It's truly been so long since we tried anything before this, and it was such a terrible case to bring before a jury.
Anyway, all in all, it was a happy day yesterday! Here are a few photos...
My glasses are reflecting the phone pretty badly here, but oh well.
Waiting (for 20 whole minutes) on a verdict. =)
Here we are 3 years ago in that same spot!
(These next two photos were taken by Joe Tomlinson from the NonDoc website, a reporter who covered this case in detail. You can read more about yesterday's verdict and the jurors' reactions HERE if you want.) This = Mr. Fu and his client.
Mr. Smith, his cousin, his attorney, and one of our jurors hugging him and chatting more about it all in the parking lot after the trial.
Something crazy that happened in the middle of this trial... my tripod (that holds up my CR steno machine) totally broke. It was right after a bench conference, and I quickly realized I would have to hold it up by hand to keep it from falling, and that wasn't really going to work since I need both hands for typing. So we took a break, and I was able to use the tripod from my old machine. This will matter to no one but me, but the older tripod was not a tilting one, so it put my hands in a weird position and caused a lot more strain on my arms, neck, and shoulders. Becky, one of the other CRs in my building, had a tilting tripod that she wasn't using, so I was able to switch it out for that the next day, which was such fantastic news for me! Yay, God!
Okay, I think that's all I've got about our trial. Hooray for justice prevailing! Hooray for Ben Fu and Mr. Smith and his family! Hooray for being done!! =)
Tiffany came over on Saturday for a movie night (I was talking about the State dismissing all charges in My Cousin Vinny and we realized she's never seen it, so we remedied that). I decided to bake some brownies for us... this = the chocolate dough + peanut butter swirled on top. Unfortunately, something appears to be wrong with my oven, so they still looked about like this after baking for 30 minutes. Sadness. We ate the very edge part and threw away the raw middle. lol
Encouraging verse that's been on my heart lately:
Carter Lee and Jace Michael at a CHA football game last week
The kids swam last week without the pool being heated. Crazies! lol
This bike bootcamp was super fun, and it always makes me happy when I can earn 4 badges in one ride! lol
The Miss K being creative and drawing this from a book cover for show-and-tell. ❤
"Grandma Laura" and "Bella-Bellsy" a few years back. It was the 8th birthday of the girlfranz on Sunday, and I hope they celebrated well! ❤
I'm excited for this after watching the trailer... I'm such a fan of all things Marvel now!
So I went to open my windows this morning and discovered this glittery Christmas tragedy!! Looking back, I think I may have heard it fall last night... Farewell, lovely ornament wreath. I'm sorry the Command Hook failed us both. =(
That's all I've got for you today. Hope you treasure your freedom and remember to be grateful for the little things and have a fantastic week ahead! ❤
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