A juror in a Grand Junction, Colorado, murder case more than a decade ago is one step closer to being behind bars herself after a judge ruled her in contempt of court.
According to the Grand Junction Sentinel, Marilyn Charlesworth “willfully” gave the wrong answer to a juror questionnaire she filled out before the 2004 murder trial of Michael Blagg, who was convicted.
The conviction now has been overturned, and a retrial has yet to be set. The 52-year-old Blagg remains behind bars for the 2001 death of his wife, Jennifer. The couple’s young daughter, Abby Blagg, remains missing and is presumed dead.
The Sentinel report said Judge Jane Tidball found that Charlesworth “beyond a reasonable doubt” must be held in contempt for her answer.
Her sentencing was scheduled for June 26, and she could be given up to six months in jail.
The Colorado paper reported Dan Rubinstein of the district attorney’s office also said Charlesworth should pay the costs of a second trial, including fees and experts.
Daniel Shaffer, Charlesworth’s attorney, argued she didn’t consider herself to be a domestic violence victim when she filled out the questionnaire in February 2004.
WND earlier reported the penalty for the juror could surpass $100,000.
KUSA-TV in Denver had reported Charlesworth was on the 12-member jury that returned the guilty verdict after she filled out a jury questionnaire that asked, “Have you, a family member, or close friend ever been involved in domestic violence?”
She said no, the station reported.
But then in 2013, she appeared at a Grand Junction City Council meeting to protest a city councilman-elect who had been accused of hitting his girlfriend.
She said she “was a victim of domestic violence for 10 years,” and her words were noticed.
Blagg’s defense counsel filed a motion, and the guilty verdict was overturned with Judge David Bottger’s conclusion that her “deliberative failure to disclose her domestic violence involvement makes this not a close question at all.”
The office of prosecutor Pete Hautzinger had helped defend Charlesworth earlier from accusations from the public defender about vision troubles and a failure to disclose the use of a prescription drug, none of which rose to the level of being an issue for the judge.
But KUSA reported the prosecutor has a new perspective.
See the report:
“I think it’s reasonable to ask the court to consider imposing some significant financial penalty on her,” he said.
The prosecutor’s concern, however, also was raised because of the tactics of the Colorado Public Defender’s Office, which has investigated Charlesworth for 10 years on and off.
“The idea that it’s OK to investigate jurors’ pasts months, if not years, after they did their juror service is troubling,” he told KUSA.
The station reported Charlesworth declined to answer questions about domestic violence but said court records show she filed for restraining orders against former husbands twice in the 1990s.
A friend told the broadcast outlet that the understanding Charlesworth has of domestic violence now is far from what she understood then.
“It’s very subjective, how you feel when you go through it, how you would answer that question,” said the friend, Anne Landman.
The station reported Amy Pohl of the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence said victims frequently don’t understand clearly what domestic violence is, “because they weren’t being physically abused.”
And Pohl argued the wording on the questionnaire was inadequate, because there was no definition, leaving “a lot of gray area.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/murder-case-juror-closer-to-being-behind-bars-2/
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