Jury duty and a few photos

WARNING: The following contains some talk of sexual activities. Parents probably shouldn't let kids read this unless they feel they can handle it.

NOTE: The following is my opinion of the events that took place during a civil case of D. C. vs. Jennifer Hasratian and El Matador March 5-13, 2018. Take if for what its worth

Common area just outside the court room

Common area just outside the court room. None of the people in this Photo were selected

Common area just outside the court room

Exterior of courthouse in Salt Lake City Ut

On March 5-13, 2018 I served on a Jury of the United States District Court for the District of Utah. This turned out to be a unique journey full of grueling testimonies, antics from the defense and Plaintiff lawyers, tons of evidence, and serving with amazing jurors.

On March 5 we entered the antiseptic halls of the new District court house on 351 South West Temple at 7:30 am. Security is similar to the airport, minus the full body scanners. Found out I had to remove my belt. Ended up not wearing a belt the remainder of my days in attendance at the courthouse.

The Selection

Pathway on East side of courthouse in SLC

Once in we went to a room full of chairs with a projector and screen. After all 44 of us arrived we watched a video which appeared to be at least 15 years old, based on the type of computers shown. This was essentially a propaganda video on how we were all performing our civic duty and upholding the freedoms of our country by adhering to the order to show up. I am happy to report that after serving, I found the video to be essentially true. After serving, I have definitely come away with a deeper sense of how our system works, and what a privilege it is to live in a country that affords its citizens a trial to prove innocence or guilt, and to settle disputes. Boy, let me tell you, did we have a dispute to settle last week.


Selection took the better half of a day. We were questioned as a group. There were many with legitimate excuses. Other s not so much. After this they pulled us in one by one to question us. It wasnt until the 3rd day of my service I realized why they asked me what they asked. Based on my answers I realized why I was chosen; I cant go into detail due to the sensitive nature of some of my answers. Suffice to say, part of the reason I may have been chosen was because they saw I might empathize with the defendant and Plaintiff on some level.

So I was #8, and had to wait through the remaining potential jurors questioning. We were afforded some breaks during this time, so I ate lunch and walked around a bit. They told us if they selected someone with a higher number than what we were, we could go home. They selected one person lower than myself, then called #9. Yes!, going home. Nope. "Wait #8, we made a mistake. You've been chosen." Honestly I was curious as to what it would be like to serve on a jury, so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

After selections were made we were given new numbers. I ended up being Juror #2. this was also the order we sat in two rows in the courtroom.

What we had to accomplish

Once all other potentials were dismissed the Judge laid out what had already been proven in the criminal case. This was to be a civil case, in which we were were to determine compensation for damages, if any, based on what had been proven in the criminal case and additional evidence presented to us.

This is what happened: In May 2013 a 16 year old teen (D.C.) was hired by one of the owners (Jen) of El Matador in Ogden. Shortly after being hired they began having sex. This continued until July of the same year. The police found out, the relationship ended, Jen was accused. I still dont know the details of the criminal case beyond what the Judge told us last week. Maybe I will look it up some time. What I do know is that some time in the following couple years Jen was convicted, sentenced and fulfilled her sentence. That brings us to the Civil case that I and 11 other jurors were now a part of.

That first day there was only time for opening statements by the Plaintiff and Defense lawyers. Jen was present, but D.C. was not. This would be the norm except for two days in which D.C. would testify.

Four and a half days of gueling testimony and evidence

Trax station near Decker Lake in WVC, on last day of deliberation.
Rode Trax every morning

I wont bore you with every detail of this case. What took place over the next four and half days was a ton of testimony from witnesses, evidence presented and free lunches. I will share some of the more interesting or disturbing things here.

"I object"

Lets start with the Plaintiff Lawyer. Not sure if he was new to the whole Jury trial thing or not, but he kept on leading his witnesses. The defense lawyer over and over and over, "Ojection, leeeeading the witness." She got pretty snarky about this, and the judge got pretty exasperated. I think he figured it out by the third day, after we had gone through this same scenario about 70 times.

Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat

So, so many things were repeated. Some of the items were just simple evidence we were already aware of. Other things were quite disgusting. Such as the defense lawyer reiterating 3 or 4 times specific sexual acts that I will not repeat here.  I suppose this kind of repetitive language was for our benefit supposedly. Repetition breeds remembrance. This caused me to feel dark and worn down inside by the end of each day. It all weighed on my soul, that such despicable things could be done by people.

Leia Organa speed photo manipulation video

Thought I would post this little video I made showing (In fast forward) how I created the fan art of Leia last month. This was fun. Took a couple hours. Enjoy!

My Photo was published!

Not everyday a person gets a photo published in a newspaper. Thought I would show off. I took the original Mid-October of last year in Downtown Salt Lake. I love macro shots of insects.

Graphic as it appears in the August 5th, 2015 edition of the Deseret News on page 2. I photoshopped the highlitght bubble.

This is the graphic out of context of the paper.

A little creativity here and there

No man is an island unto himself

A few weeks ago my son participated in the annual Pinewood derby. For LDS youth this is almost a right of passage from toddlerhood into pre-teenhood. Equally so it is a sort of right of passage for LDS fathers in son-rearing. More effort goes into making these things than you would think.

 My son comes home from scouts and says "Dad I want to build a pinewood derby car. Will you help me?" Peace of cake right. Riiiiight!

So I sat down with him. First thing he wants to do is start scribbling all over the wood block and attach the wheels. I pulled the reins in, and went through the design process together. 

We began by brainstorming ideas for car themes. My son is way into nature, so all kinds of nature themes came up. The one he kept coming back to was an island theme. Rather than brush it off and steer him into a more practical direction, I indulged his idea.

I sketched on paper what an island themed racer might look like. I further brainstormed what he would like to be seen on this island racer. He settled on a peacock and snake. Other details included trees and a volcano.

The trees would be cut toothpicks with paper crumpled and taped to the tips. The Peacock and snake were made from bakable sculpting clay. In the case of the snake I sculpted it directly to the trunk of one of the trees.

Cutting the block of wood to the proper shape proved to be the most challenging. For this I enlisted the aid of my father, who has a full wood shop full of tools. Unfortunately I was not able to be there. thankfully grandpa was more than happy to take my son, cut the wood and make this happen. The results, as you can see above, were much more than I expected. My Dad went above and beyond.

After this I helped my son paint the car and put the wheels on.

The day of the race I went into this fully expecting Gage's car not to be the winner. This car was primarily for show. However, I was relieved when I saw that his was not the slowest. No one wants to be the slowest. We had a good time, which is what really mattered; and we shared a good experience as Son, Father and Grandfather.