Day 19 (Day 15 since testimony began, Day 1 of deliberations), Danny Masterson retrial
After an eventful morning when Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller finished the government’s closing rebuttal, the jury got the case and then we heard a whole lot of nothing.
We stayed in the courtroom in case there was a question from the jury, but they got through their first day of deliberating and hit the buzzer only once, at the end of the day.
(Last time, the jury had a couple of questions for the judge, and also requested a read-back of testimony over several days of deliberations. )
Just a few of us reporters were in the otherwise empty courtroom, chatting about other cases they were covering.
One subject for discussion was about something Judge Olmedo said: She told us this morning that if there was a verdict, she would give everyone a two-hour warning so that the attorneys and reporters could get back to the courtroom.
But what, we wondered, would happen if the jury came in for verdicts at, say, 3 pm? Would Judge Olmedo really wait until 5 pm to read the verdicts, or would she postpone it until the next morning?
Also, last time the result was a hung jury and there was very little notice at all. Would that be the case this time as well?
And of course we’re very interested in when this evidentiary hearing might be held about the leak of discovery material to the Church of Scientology. But when we asked the court clerk about that this afternoon, he said that nothing yet was scheduled, as far as he knew.
For now, we’re just in the waiting game, and we’re hoping Judge Olmedo updates the offerings in her candy bowl, which is pretty depleted at this point.
We’ll be back in the morning for another day of verdict watch with the diehards.
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Praying for justice⚖️ this time around🙏🏻...Thank you Tony for your relentless reporting 💻and keeping us all posted 📮📧!
Yes, thank you for working so hard to keep us all well informed. 👏🏼👍🏼