Monday, July 9, 2007

"He didn't say it." (The jury to Roger Rosen)

Several interesting things happened today. After hearing Vincent Tannazzo testify outside the presence of the jury in the morning session, Judge Fidler reversed his prior ruling and let this witness testify in the prosecution's CIC (Case in Chief). Louis came to court again today. This time one of his coworkers who was interested in observing some of the trial, met him at the court house. Louis, his friend and I had lunch with Mr. Dunne today. Mostly, Mr. Dunne and Louis talked while Louis's friend and I just listened. Mr. Dunne was disappointed that Louis's companion was not here today, but he has said several times that Louis is a very likable person and I agree with his assessment.

At the afternoon break, Louis was sitting in the back row of the court room, and when Spector came back in from break, he greeted his son again, reaching out to shake his hand. In the morning, Rachelle had smiled and waived a quick hello to him.

During the afternoon session, when Roger Rosen was cross examining Vincient Tannazzo, I was writing out some notes for myself on what I remembered of the discussion at lunch. I wasn't paying attention to the cross much, because I had heard most of it in the morning and was concentrating on writing out my notes on the lunch. I was glancing up, and I heard the Judge say, that he would have to check the transcript tomorrow regarding whether or not the witness had said something that Rosen was insisting the witness had. I looked back down to continue writing my notes about the lunch. All of a sudden, I heard a voice say, "He didn't say it." I looked up, and I see several jurors saying the same thing. More than one juror agreed with the first juror who spoke up and said, "He didn't say it." I did not see the first juror speak, but I did see other jurors nod in agreement and say virtually the same thing.

In the hallway at the afternoon break, Alan Jackson said, "Just saw the first time that an entire jury corrected a defense attorney."

Later in the afternoon session, either Beth Karas or one of the Court TV cameramen dropped a water bottle, and it made a bit of noise in the court room. One of the attorneys (I'm not sure which one), said something to the effect of, "Is that something to eject them from the room?" (That's not an exact quote.) The Judge replied ~with a smile on his face~, "It was an equipment malfunction."

Outside court on the street, I offered Louis a ride home, since we don't live far from each other and I had driven to court today. I had a wonderful time on the drive home, each of us sharing about our fathers and the things we have in common.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always, your commentary is much appreciated. What an extremely interesting day! I enjoyed reading how you got to spend some time with Louis on the drive home. He and his brother Gary seem to be such fine fellows.

I read somewhere recently that Tom Cruise was interested in making a biopic type movie about Spector. Do you or Mr. Dunne know anything about this project? Sure would be interesting, to say the least, to see Tom Cruise play Spector.

Thanks so much for bringing the facts and flavor of the trial to us as only you can -- please keep up the great work! :)

Sprocket said...

Thank you very much Sherbie.

As a matter of fact, this very issue was discussed at lunch, and Louis put the whole project into perspective for Mr. Dunne and myself. It happened around the time that Spector invited his sons to join him at a Laker's game. We talked about who would have been the perfect person to play Phil Spector, in a movie.

Anonymous said...

sprocket, I so look forward to reading this blog. I just love hearing about what goes on behind the scenes.

You are going to have to invite Mr. Dunne to dinner! I would love to talk to him. He is truly interesting.

Take care,
Jean

Sprocket said...

Thank you very much Jean!

I have had many interesting conversations with Mr. Dunne at lunch.

When "Old Hollywood" has come up in discussions among the reporters in Hollywoood, Mr. Dunne usually has a story about the person being discussed.

Joy said...

Sprocket,

Your trial reporting, both here and Court TV board, is just wonderful - you're a terrific writer and an astute observer of human nature. You indeed have a ton of human nature to watch in that court. lol

If it's permissable, please, please pass along the highest praise for Mr. Dunne's work. Have read all his novels and used to subscibe to VF just for his articles. Truly, I'm a huge, huge fan - to me, his word is golden.

Again, thanks for the special peek into this mesmerizing trial.

A personal note - so sorry about your beloved kitty.

Joy

Sprocket said...

Thank you so much for you kind words joy! I don't consider myself a writer ~ I love to read more than I like to write. And I will certainly print out your note to Mr. Dunne and pass it along to him tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sprocket! Just wanted to let you know (AGAIN!) you are doing a GREAT job here - I love your writing!! Following you every day!
Thanks!

and - you wrote:
"We talked about who would have been the perfect person to play Phil Spector, in a movie"
care to share WHO that might entail?? Just curious!! LOL!

Sprocket said...

Hi Niner! Thank you very much!

Pee Wee Herman was first choice (there was a movie he did where, supposedly, his character strongly resembled Spector), and I thought Paul Giamanni (sp?) who was in that movie about the winery's with Sandra Oh. There was one other name, but I forget who it was.