> Hmm... Very interesting. From what you had said before, Evading was the one charge that I would have expected to come up NOT guilty. Of course, I know I'm missing a large chunk of the story, but still... The others, though, I definitely felt that I had too little information about to guess the outcome.
>

When we began deliberations, I was thinking not guilty for all three/four charges. You have to remember, in the American legal system, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The prosecution (the State) has to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. The defendant never has to prove his innocence.

WRT the evading charge, we feel that the state did prove that Mr. E_____ knew he was being persued by the police at least at the one mile point and, judging the traffic conditions -- again, this is where the defense lawyer's photographic evidence comes into play (he shows light traffic on a typical Tuesday at the approximate time this took place, testimony stated it was heavy traffic.) -- there wasn't enough traffic on the highway to force Mr. E_____ to drive one full mile or more before he could safely pull over. Introducting these photographs into evidence was a stupid mistake by the defense.

One thing in the Aggravated Assault charge, Sgt. S_____ was on the other side of the door when Inv. F_____ was injured. Both the sergeant and the investigator testified that the sergeant attempted to assist the extraction of the defendant by reaching over the door. Therefore, there is a good possibility that the injuries were caused by Sgt. S_____ accidentally shutting the door. As long as that possiblity could not be discounted by the state, we had to give Mr. E_____ the benefit of the doubt.

The Resisting Arrest came down to timing. Did Mr. E_____ have enough time to get out of the car or even say "Okay, officer," before he was pulled out the vehicle? Testimony given indicated that he could have said or done something before Inv. F_____ reached into the car or he could have said or done something before Sgt. W_____ and Sgt. S_____ extracted him. However, the state did not provide enough evidence to say beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. E_____ did strike Inv. F_____. If they did, he would have been found guilty of the fourth degree Resisting Arrest.

That's what it came down to.

> In regards to the entire series of posts, I found them very interesting and enlightening. You have a knack for presenting the story well... I'm glad you took the time to post. :-)
>
> Don "Thanks!" Monkey

You're welcome.

-Faux "glad that's over with" Pas