Meet grand juror No. 344. Or at least I was.
I should have seen this one coming.
A few weeks ago I received a summons in the mail to report as part of a grand jury pool in Chester County.
This was not your run-of-the-mill jury for a civil or criminal case.
This was a grand jury.
That piqued my curiosity, but I still didn't make the obvious connection.
So last Friday I made my way to the Chester County Courthouse. But first, I had to shovel out the driveway. Justice was going to have to wait. The courthouse was operating on a two-hour delay.
It turned out to be good practice. If you've ever been called for jury duty, you know that one of your biggest tasks is finding ways to kill the time. You do a lot of waiting.
At least I was not alone.
In fact, I was one of 360 called for the pool.
My first mistake of the day was using the steps. First, I traversed down six floors from the parking garage across from the courthouse in West Chester. Then, once I made it through the metal detectors, emptying my pockets, having my laptop bag examined and being "wanded" by a Chester County sheriff, I inquired where Courtroom 1 was.
"Seventh floor," the deputy responded.
I noticed the flock of people heading for the elevator. I decided to take the steps. I can tell you that going up seven flights of steps with a laptop bag dragging from your shoulder is a lot tougher than going down six floors of the parking lot.
When I got to Courthouse 1, I'm surprised someone didn't call 911. I probably looked like I was having a heart attack.
I dutifully signed in at the desk and took a seat in the massive, beautiful main Courtroom 1.
The firs thing they do with the group is reseed everyone, and assign you a new number. I drew Number 45, and you are seated in order in the courtroom.
All of this goes into the process of selecting an investigating grand jury. You are then given a form to fill out, which explains to you the nature of your task, most importantly that the grand jury will seated for 18 months, with sessions meeting several times a month. The groans were audible in the courtroom as people read over the forms.
The job of the judge and two assistant district attorneys was to trim this group down from more than 350 to 38 - 23 permanent, 15 alternates.
At this point everyone in the room was asked to rise as Chester County Judge Jeffrey Sommer entered. The judge proceeded to explain a little of the history and purpose of a grand jury. It goes back to the Magna Carta. The judge reminded the potential jurors that an investigative grand jury would not be delivering a verdict, as they would in a civil or criminal trial. Instead, they would hearing testimony and reviewing documents submitted and then determining if indictments should be issued.
I still had not made the obvious connection, given the recent headlines.
So I nearly fell off my chair when Judge Sommer informed the jury pool they would be dealing with issues surrounding the Mariner East pipeline.
I nearly fell off my chair.
That's when it hit me. A few weeks back Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan made headlines when he announced he was launching a criminal investigation into the construction of the controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Now he was following up by impaneling a grand jury to hear testimony.
Judge Sommer walked the jury pool through the process known as Voir Dire, literally "to tell the truth."
First he ran through some perfunctory questions: Was everyone in the room 18 or older? Are you a resident of Chester County? Do you have a serious criminal conviction?
The he got to the heart of the matter.
He asked if people had read or heard about the Mariner East pipeline project, the massive push to deliver hundreds of thousands of barrels of liquid gases from the Marcellus Shale region across the width of Pennsylvania - through Chester and Delaware counties - to a facility in Marcus Hook.
To be honest, I was surprised by how many people did not raise their hands. So much for the power of the press. We have written hundreds of stories on Mariner East, very likely one of the biggest economic projects in the region. I also have written dozens of editorials on the topic, many of them noting the vehement opposition of many residents opposed to routing these kinds of materials through densely populated neighborhoods, in close proximity to senior centers and elementary schools.
Judge Sommer asked if anyone was employed or had close ties to Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based company that owns the pipeline, or its subsidiary, Sunoco Logistics. He then mentioned a list of companies that have done work on the pipeline.
Eventually he got to my turf, asking if anyone had a hardship or other connection that they believed would make them ineligible to serve on the grand jury.
By this point, my No. 45 placard was getting a workout.
The judge asked those who had raised their hands to approach the bench for a sidebar conference to explain their reasons why the should be excluded.
When my turn came, I told them who I was and what I do for a living. I suggested that since we likely will be closely covering the activities of the grand jury, it's unlikely they would want me on the grand jury, unless they wanted to read about its activities every morning in the newspaper.
But before I left, I had a question for them.
Obviously we had done stories when the D.A. announced his investigation. But we had not yet reported that he was impaneling a grand jury to hear testimony. That testimony is done in secret. My question for the judge was this: Is the fact that a grand jury was being assembled also private?
The assistant D.A. answered my question. The material that goes before the grand jury is private; the process to select the panel is not.
I didn't make the cut.
The judge informed the group that he would be announcing those excluded from possible grand jury duty.
Then he added this. At that point, all the rest of the potential juror numbers would be placed in a box and 38 numbers would be drawn at random for service on the grand jury duty.
Again, the groans were audible.
I guess it is a little more than ironic that I would wind up being called for possible duty on a grand jury called to investigate the Mariner East pipeline. I probably have written more about it than any other topic.
To be honest, I would have loved sitting on the grand jury. I found the entire process - a little bit of the behind the scenes of the courts people don't always get to read about - more than a little fascinating.
It wasn't to be.
I got the boot.
There was only one thing left to do.
Walk down another seven flights of steps.
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