Posted on 06/20/2024 1:35:22 PM PDT by gitmo
An Oregon judge is facing heat for allowing second graders to serve as special jurors in a hit-and-run trial that occurred in April.
The heat against Judge Ulanda Watkins is being applied by Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth. Earlier this month Wentworth wrote a letter to a higher-level judge, Judge Michael Wetzel, raising alarms about Watkins’ conduct.
Wentworth wrote in the letter that “a large group of second graders entered the courtroom, presumably as part of a field trip from a local elementary school,” during the hit-and-run trial, as reported by The Oregonian.
The students were reportedly on a field trip from St. John the Apostle School in Oregon City.
Watkins allegedly told the kids they’d help “decide what happened” in the case.
“The second graders were then allowed to sit in the jury box, just feet away from the defendant, and were given notepads, just like an actual sworn jury would receive,” Wentworth wrote.
He added that Watkins even told the students they could interrupt the trial if they couldn’t hear a witness.
“There was no inquiry of either party as to whether they consented to this process or consideration given to the victim who was equally confused by what was taking place,” Wentworth wrote.
Responding to this story on social media, critics said the judge was out of her mind:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanwirenews.com ...
Yes. You guessed it. Another democrat party DIE appointee.
Maybe fifth grade, my class, from Ann Arbor, in 1971, were taken to Detroit to watch an hour or two of a Trail in downtown Detroit. I have a vivid image in my head of a huge pile of heroin bricks on a cart. We were not allowed a vote as to the defendants guilt.
Headline: SECOND GRADERS to be jurors
Story: second graders to serve as special jurors in a hit-and-run trial that occurred in April.
I suspect that the word special in the story means they weren’t actually jurors.
Is Oregon that different, I thought the juror pools were filled from DMV an voter rolls, how in the world is it legal legal one ethical considering the type of evidence involved.
Why the he’ll can’t these A holes let children just be children without forcing them into adult roles? This ‘judge’ needs to be removed from the bench.
Ulanda is like a child herself, maybe more so.
Went to the Wikipedia article on Clackamas County and the media includes a photo of a road sign: Boring Oregon City. (On two lines--Boring must be the name of a locale nearby.)
January 18, 2018
Four Alumnae Appointed as Oregon Judges
Four Lewis & Clark Law School alumnae – all women of color – were appointed as Oregon judges last year by Governor Kate Brown’85.
“Is Oregon that different, I thought the juror pools were filled from DMV an voter rolls, how in the world is it legal legal one ethical considering the type of evidence involved.”
It wasn’t a jury trial.
“Why the he’ll can’t these A holes let children just be children without forcing them into adult roles?”
They were on a field trip. Not put into adult roles.
Do I REALLY need to see a picture of ULANDA????? AA Judge, I’m sure!!
BAD GRUP!!
I read the original article in the Oregonian. Its a link from the posted article. And I am still confused, but it looks likely that the kids were the only jurors, they sat in the jury box so that’s that I guess.
Oregon is just weird.
Boring is, or at least used to be, a nice little town SE of Portland. I’d cut through there sometimes on my way from U.S. Highway 26 to places south of Portland, turning off at the sign you mention. Haven’t been through there in about 40 years.
My great-great-great-grandparents went to Oregon Territory in 1852. My great-great-great-grandmother died on the Oregon Trail in Clackamas County (without having served on any juries). Her husband settled near Silverton in Marion County. I went to Salem about ten years ago to do some genealogical research but just stayed on the freeway when I was driving through the Portland area.
Yes.
Perhaps because they are only two years into the public school system, they might still have some sense.
Some.
By the fifth grade, most Oregon kids are felons, and no longer eligible to be jurors.
The judge needs to face some serious discipline.
You’d probably enjoy a book called The Empire Builders, by Robert Ormond Case. It’s a series of short historical stories about Oregon, from Capt. Gray crossing the Columbia bar to statehood. I read it when I was a kid, then recently bought a copy to reread.
Yes, it’s a farm town at the edge of the greater metro area.
Popular with tourist to mail postcards and letters with a Boring, Oregon postmark.
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