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Show 4A Emery County Progress Tuesday, October 10, 1995 PERSPECTIVE The Simpson verdict Has it come to this? A pain in the ... by Allen Thorpe Progress columnist It didnt by Larry W. Davis you haven't had enough of criminal trials lately, I'm about to relate an anecdote involving atrial I covered last As if summer. x a criminal trial, there are usually tons of documents, physical evidence and testimony. But there are also those things that stand on the periphery of the trial- - the waiting, the speculation, the sleepless nights, the tears, In and sometimes, the laughter. At the Jason Pearson trial last summer, I sat directly behind the defense table and next to an Emery County deputy who was part of the court-roosecurity. The trial went on for over two weeks, so kind of got comfortable in "my spot." I even kind of got to know some of the family members of the defendant and chatted with them daily as I did with the Emery County detectives. The defense team of Ken Brown and his assistant Natasha Hawley worked hard during the trial and seemed to always be prepared. One day, however, as Miss Hawley began arguing a motion, she became very pale, wavered and had to brace herself on the table in front of her. The judge, recognizing that she was not well, told her to feel free to sit down and take what ever time she might need to collect herself. A short recess was granted, and the attorney tried to recover. Although she did resume her arguments, she did it from a sitting position and did not fully recover until the next day. A couple of days after that, as court got underway, Mr. . Brown was not present. The judge announced that he was unable to attend court that day and was attempting to pass a kidney stone. That message struck close to my own kidneys since I have also had a kidney stone and know the kind of pain that comes from such an ailment. In light of Miss Hawley's fainting spells and Mr. Brown's kidney stones, had to turn to the detective sitting next to me and warn him that he would be next. "It's moving this way, and you'll be the next to be plagued," I said. He laughed. The next day, Mr. Brown was back in court, and he told me that he had spent the day in a hot tub dealing with the pain of the kidney stone and waiting for it to pass. When it finally did pass, he felt as good as new and the trial was resumed. Ironically, about a half dozen of us in the courtroom that day had had kidney stones, and we all compared notes before the day's session got underway. That night I ate chicken and went to bed about 1 1 p.m. By about one a.m. awoke with a vicious pain in my back and stomach. It was like one of my vital organs was tryI ing out a new chainsaw on other vital organs. thought I it might be a stone, but the first time had one didn't feel nauseous, and this time I did. My next thought was that it might be bad chicken- - the dreaded salmonella. took the usual worthless medications, thinking that the pain might go away, but the aspirin didn't help nor did the Pepto. The pain just got worse. Finally, my wife came home from club, and I told herthat thought had a kidney stone. She called for help and an hour later was in the emergency room at Castleview. When I had a kidney stone before, in about 1983, spent five days in the hospital and finally had to have surgery. This time, however, I was given a shot, a prescription and sent on my way. The shot relaxed the urinary tract, and the prescription was for the pain. slept well the rest of the night, got up and went to the bathroom, and the pesky little stone came out. My wife put it in a baggy, labeled it "Larry's Kidney Stone," and stuck it on the refrigerator door with a magnet. It was all over in a matter of a few hours. I felt well enough to go to the trial that day, and I enjoyed telling Mr. Brown and the others in the courtroom that had spent the night wrestling with a kidney stone much like Mr. Brown had done a few days before. There are a lot of reasons why it was nice to have that trial over with a couple of days later. It had gone on a long time and was costing taxpayers a lot of money while creating a lot of stress and uncertainty for those close to the case. think also that if the trial had gone on much longer, someone else in the courtroom, someone sitting behind me somewhere, would have developed a case of somethingorother soonerorlater. m I I I 1 I I I I 1 I I I one as so many black people apparently adopted in O.J.'s case. It is a logical presumption, a setting of the scales to the starting point in favor of come home to me how much the O.J. Simpson trial had come to pervade our lives until Tuesday, Oct. 3, 1995, when the verdict was announced. The people in the courthouse, where I was working, gathered around TV sets and radios to hear the results. Apparently the rest of the country did too. There was a short period when long distance telephone calls dropped precipitously. In Great Britain, power consumption dropped precipitously. Whole nations paused to the defendant, not an emotional commitment or a rooting interest. The jury should not adopt an attitude of hope or belief in either side of the case. They should consider the evidence on its own merits without coloring it with their own hopes or fears, and they should arrive at their verdict based solely on the relevant facts, without regard to politics, popular feeling or sympathy. listen. I had allowed myself to believe that it would be a guilty verdict against my better judgement, and so I was disappointed as much with my own objectivity as with the outcome ofthe trial. I was already pretty disgusted with how the trial had been run, so this result just confirmed my previous feelings about that. Nevertheless, there is a bitter feeling of None of that happened in this case. As I feared, the case was allowed to become a racial struggle rather than the vicious slaughter of two innocent people. I guess that was inevitable in light of the history of racism and abuse in the L.A.P.D., but that doesn't make it right. I find it ironic that 0. J. frustration that follows whenever an institution fails to fulfill its purpose. sense of fairness and is justice based pretty much on logic. When logic fails or is ignored, it throws that sense out ofbalance and stirs up protesting emotions. I expect juries to listen to the instructions they receive and to follow them. The first of these is that the defendant is presumed innocent until that presumption is overcome by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. However, the presumption is not an emotional within that system for many years. Prosecutors have pre- tended not to know about them. Judges have accepted transparent lies. So the chickens have come home to roost. All of that is no solace to the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, nor to the rest of us. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that there' were faults in the prosecution's case, the sloppy handling of evidence, the questions about the legality of some of the searches. The use of Mark Fuhrman as a witness was a huge disaster, probably unavoidable. The prosecution knew or should have known about Fuhrman's background and his racist views and surely would have preferred not to call him, but they had to have him testify about finding the bloody glove. Although the identity of the investigator shouldn't play any part in evaluating the evidence he brought forward, it gave the defense an opportunity to play the race card and divert the whole trial into an attack on major importance to bur justice system. The first Rodney King verdict in Simi Valley created riots in the areas where it was perceived as unjust. So O.J. has bought himself a verdict. Johnny Cochran and his demagoguery has triumphed over reason, truth and the rule of law. The jury was so distributed by the racism and bias of one of the investigators, that it did not trust the rest of the evidence. There are plenty of faults to be found in the failure to keep irrelevant matters out of the trial, but we have to assume that defendants will grasp any straw we leave in their reach. In this case the straw was more like a baseball bat. The only way I can see to salvage anything from this fiasco is for it to spur our law enforcement agencies Simpson should have become the champion of black backto clean up their act and for lash since he had pretty much prosecutors and judges to more for white a the police. adopted carefully scrutinize the eviBut he had the dence many years. brought to them and to lesasan be to should This and the object a celebrity money adopt policy of zero tolerance sume the role. Most black son on the importance of pro- for slipshod procedures or bias. people saw in him their chance fessionalism and fair play in The people themselves should to stick it to the system, to give law enforcement. I don't know recognize that if we don't do law enforcement the same kind how many times people have justice in the cases of the unof injustice it had been dealing asked me how I could defend a important people, we may not out to them for years. In that person when I knew he or she get it in the "important" cases. sense, I can agree that the le- was guilty. I had to keep re- The jury system has a way of gal system brought this result peating that their guilt was cutting through to the truth. on itself by failing to rid itself not the point to me. My job was We have to assure ourselves of the racists and sadists in the to see that they were treated that the only thing there for police department long ago. fairly and in accordance with our juries to find will be honest Stacy Kuhn and Mark the law. It might not matter to and reliable witnesses, fair and Fuhrman and their ilk have most of us if a guilt person professional officers, and solid, been sheltered and fostered receives all of his rights or not, relevant evidence. life-sty- le My ( t Forum - ' t t Public lands To but if we allow ourselves to tailor justice to our opinion of the accused, the whole system loses its integrity and can no longer be seen as impartial. Like it or not, perception is of the editor: Some state bureaucrats and apparently the governor are wringing their hands over the 'possibility that if Utah take ownership of public lands within its borders, it may cost some money. Forget the cost! Is Utah going to grow up to be a state or is it not? How can a state-bworthy of the name it if hasn't e the gumption to accept responsibility to govern within its own borders? Is this country made up of true states and wimp states? First class states and second class states? As long as the federal government owns and legislates on 67 percent of the land base of the "state of Utah," there is no "state of Utah." There is only islands of private land immersed within a sea of conquered federal territory. Leaders in the "state of Utah are being offered an op- portunity, with Congressman Hansen's legislation. Its pas: sage would make Utah truly a state and not a federal territory governed, as before the charade of "statehood," by Washington. Any state "leader" who does not rise to support Hansen in his effort to make Utah a true state does not deserve his or her position or the term "leader." This charge begins with Gov. Michael 0. Leavitt who is noticeably "absent" without leadership" on the issue. Certainly Leavitt will lose stature among his gubernatorial peers when he campaigns for his I'conference of states" while at the same time acquiescing to federal hegemony over the majority of his states. Utah is in need of true leadership at a critical time in the history of federal state relations. Paul L. Young so-call- ed Opposes plans to cut Medicare Val D. Christianson, past president of the Utah Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers (UTAMES), representing the home medical equipment (HME) services industry in Utah, attacked the Senate Republican plan released Sept. 22 to cut Medicare reimbursement for home oxygen by 40 percent and include a CPI freeze for seven years for all home medical equipment, except for oxygen. The House Republican Plan, which was released Sept. 21 contains an as yet unspecified cut in oxygen as well as a CPI freeze for all HME for seven years. Stated Christianson, "There is absolutely no justification for the Senate Republican's plan to cut the Medicare reimbursement for home oxygen by 40 percent- - which is $6.2 billion- since the figure is based on unreliable Veterans Administration (VA) data and flawed HCFA calculations on the costs for home oxygen concentrators." Sept. 29, several representatives of the National Association for Medical Equipment Services (NAMES) and the HME services industry met in Washington, D.C., with Health Care Financing Administrator (HCFA) Bruce Vladeck and his key staff to discuss several HME industry issues, including Vladeck's recent remarks in the press that under the agency's "inherent reasonableness" (IR) process that HCFA's preliminary data suggests a 7 to 43 percent cut in Medicare that HME providers serve daily reimbursement for home oxy- with home oxygen therapy, 24 hours a day! In addition, small, gen. ."At the meeting last Friday local HME companies in Utah afternoon with HCFA Adminand across the country will be istrator Vladeck, he said HCFA destroyed by these cuts and was willing to review the oxy- their employees will lose their gen concentrator data supplied jobs as a result." Mr. Christianson added, by the HME services industry-whic- h shows Medicare savings "The HME services industry of 24 percent since 1989. has worked with Congress and Vladeck told the HME indus- offered proportionate Medicare try group that if the industry savings from the industry. data showed that the VA re- HME services is only 2 pertlent port and HCFA data was of the Medicare program, but flawed, as suggested by the has received 18 reimbursement HME services industry, that cuts in the past nine years." HCFA would not publish a proposed rule on oxygen cuts. In addition, Vladeck stated that if there is no basis to go ahead with the IR process for oxygen costs, that he would write a letter to the Senate AppropriaVoice of Emery tions Subcommittee and Sen. ), Tom Harkin who has County since 1891 to HCFA addre what pushed ADMINISTRATION he considers to be excessive Kevin Ashby oxygen reimbursement fees unADVERTISING der Medicare. Jennl Fasselin "UTAMES, on behalf of the Vickie Wilbanks HME services industry across Kevin Ashby the country, strongly believes (D-IA- that the released Senate Re- EDITORIAL publican plan is arbitrary, capricious, unfounded and inappropriate! Congress and the administration have got to understand the services aspect of this industry," Christianson Larry Davis Shanna Davis "Such proposed Medicare oxygen cuts," Christianson pointed out, "would have a disastrous impact on millions of elderly and disabled patients All rights reserved by the Emery County Progress. All Is property of Emery County Progress. No part herein may be reproduced without prior written consent. remarked. " i concluded, the Republicans in Congress to reconsider their ludicrous Medicare cuts for home oxygen and offer more realistic cuts that will not destroy the HME services industry and deprive millions ofMedicare ben- eficiaries with the various HME services they need to live at home where they prefer to be. Congress can and should do better than this outlandish first attempt on Medicare cuts." Rates: 50 cents per copy; $21 per year delivered by carrier in Carbon and Emery counties; $25 in Utah; $29 out of Utah per year by mall. Subscription Office Hours: Monday 8:30 to noon; closed Tuesday; Wednesday Friday 8:30 a m. to 5:00 p.m. at 190 East Main Castle Dale, Utah. Classifieds Deadline: Monday at 10:00 a.m. for Tuesday's publication. Telephone: OFFICE Linda Thayn Marilyn Curtis Vickie Wilbanks Christianson UTAMES, on behalf of the HME services industry, urges (801 -- 2431; Fax (801)381-543- Office Manager Circulation Receptionist Publication No. (USPS 0747-212Issued once a week at Castle Dale, Utah. Second class postage paid at Castle Dale, Utah. Postmaster: Send change of address to PO Box 589, Castle Dale, Utah 84513. , |