Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Stephanie Lazarus Trial: Pre-Screening of Jurors Continues


UPDATE: 9:58 pm Edited for clarification and errors.

UPDATE: Feb. 1st, 7:00 pm: First day of pre-screening has been updated.


Sherri Rae Rasmussen


This is just a short note to let you know that the pre-screening of jurors continued this morning. At noon, the court ended up with 79 individuals who filled out the jury questionnaire. Within the first batch on Monday, there were a few who did not fully complete it. DDA Shannon Presby, in this mornings session felt that there were about eleven or so questionnaires that were not completely filled out, possibly due to language issues. They are going to try to get another 40 jurors in the hopes that there might be 10 or so that could fill out the questionnaire. The jury commissioner told Judge Perry that he could receive more jurors after 2:30 pm. Court will resume with a new batch of jurors.

I still have my afternoon notes from yesterday to finish as well as today. In the morning session, a potential juror, a woman, spoke up and informed Judge Perry that they knew the victim, Sherri Rae Rasmussen. She was a colleague of Sherri's. Judge Perry immediately excused her from this court's jury service. The woman was visibly shaken as she left the courtroom, an expression of anguish on her face.

During lunch in the first floor cafeteria, I saw her and asked if she would be willing to talk to me about Sherri. She agreed. Please keep checking back for updates later tonight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your perspective is great and your reporting is the best!

Anonymous said...

When I first read through your blog I thought... What a great service you are providing, for the public, but also for those that may have known the involved parties and want to know the truth.

I really get the sense that that's exactly what your writing allows those of us that cant be there to experience.

Keep up the balanced reporting sprocket and thx.