If you're used to watching courtroom drama, then you might find sitting in as a juror in a real trial a bit boring.
Apparently that was the case of a female juror who was bounced from the Kwame Kilpatrick trial in federal court on Tuesday. She was replaced with an alternate juror.
The juror had apparently been dozing off through the week and U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds figured enough was enough.
Which makes sense, because if you're freedom was on the line, you certainly wouldn't want someone sleeping through your trial.
The bounced juror could be a candidate for one of those mattress commercials that promises better sleep with their product. Just a thought.
Later in the morning, Kelly Bartlett, the former legislative liaison for the state budget, testified about two controversial state art and cultural grants, one for $300,000 and another for $500,000 that Kilpatrick lobbied for while he was Michigan's House minority leader. Killpatrick's wife Carlita got $100,000 from one grant and $37,5000 from another to supposedly work on conflict resolution with youth. Some other funds, the feds alleged, went to fix up Kilpatrick's friend Bobby Ferguson's office.
The feds have been hammering away on the funds for the past several days to try and show a long established pattern of Kilpatrick acting as the rainmaker, illegally spreading funds for friends and family. The defense has insisted nothing illegal happened with the grants and they were used for legitimate purposes.
Bartlett testified that he drafted a letter in September of 2001 for the an assistant Attorney General to review and determine if Kilpatrick was acting unethically -- or possibly even criminally -- by lobbying for the grants that financially benefited his wife. Bartlett said his boss never sent off the letter, but he's not sure why.
He also said that he wanted to discuss the matter with the-Gov. John Engler’s legal counsel, but that never happened.
Bartlett said Kilpatrick called him in the spring of 2001 and spoke in a tone he described as one a parent would use when a child is in trouble.
"I was a little bit startled," he said.
He said Kilpatrick was disturbed and complained that the state was asking for too much documentation on how the grants were being spent.
He said after he told Kilpatrick that the funds were subject to an audit, Kilpatrick backed off and quickly ended the conversation.
Bartlett said at some point he became concerned that some of the grant money might be going to Kilpatrick’s campaign fund for mayor. He said he did some research, but wasn’t able find anything to substantiate that suspicion.
