J Grady | Oregonian interviews a Juror from Astarita trial 8/11/18 @JGradyspartan | Uploaded August 2018 | Updated October 2024, 14 minutes ago.
The 37-year-old married father of two from a Portland suburb said he pulled no punches when he filled out the juror questionnaire from federal court.
Would he give more credence to a law enforcement officer's testimony?
Officers are "heroes" as far as he's concerned, he responded. "I will always tend to give them the benefit of the doubt,'' he wrote.
So he was surprised when he was selected as one of nine men and three women to hear the case against W. Joseph Astarita, the FBI agent accused of lying to conceal that he fired two shots at refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum.
He volunteered to be the presiding juror to help direct deliberations. No one else did, so the job was his.
Hours after he and the others voted Friday to acquit Astarita, the juror described his experience to The Oregonian/OregonLive -- from his changing thoughts about Astarita's honesty to his handshake with the agent after the trial ended.
"Let me be clear, the judge ordered us to set aside our prejudices,'' he said. "I feel I did that.''
One of the things that troubled him, he said, was the apparent "us vs. them'' tension between the FBI and Oregon State Police that pervaded the 2016 confrontation with Finicum and the aftermath. The animosity came out in the trial testimony, he said.
"I feel it's possible someone is lying," he said. "I don't know which side, or who, or it could be both. There's still two unattributed shots, and I feel like we're never going to know for sure who took them.''
He also said he "felt like a pendulum going back and forth during the trial -- from 'oh man, he definitely did it' and then 'well, maybe, he didn't.'''
The juror asked that he not be identified by name, concerned about facing potential backlash over the trial's outcome. He also didn't want to talk about the views of other jurors.
oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2018/08/presiding_juror_explains_acqui.html
The 37-year-old married father of two from a Portland suburb said he pulled no punches when he filled out the juror questionnaire from federal court.
Would he give more credence to a law enforcement officer's testimony?
Officers are "heroes" as far as he's concerned, he responded. "I will always tend to give them the benefit of the doubt,'' he wrote.
So he was surprised when he was selected as one of nine men and three women to hear the case against W. Joseph Astarita, the FBI agent accused of lying to conceal that he fired two shots at refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum.
He volunteered to be the presiding juror to help direct deliberations. No one else did, so the job was his.
Hours after he and the others voted Friday to acquit Astarita, the juror described his experience to The Oregonian/OregonLive -- from his changing thoughts about Astarita's honesty to his handshake with the agent after the trial ended.
"Let me be clear, the judge ordered us to set aside our prejudices,'' he said. "I feel I did that.''
One of the things that troubled him, he said, was the apparent "us vs. them'' tension between the FBI and Oregon State Police that pervaded the 2016 confrontation with Finicum and the aftermath. The animosity came out in the trial testimony, he said.
"I feel it's possible someone is lying," he said. "I don't know which side, or who, or it could be both. There's still two unattributed shots, and I feel like we're never going to know for sure who took them.''
He also said he "felt like a pendulum going back and forth during the trial -- from 'oh man, he definitely did it' and then 'well, maybe, he didn't.'''
The juror asked that he not be identified by name, concerned about facing potential backlash over the trial's outcome. He also didn't want to talk about the views of other jurors.
oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2018/08/presiding_juror_explains_acqui.html
