And the verdict is...

guilty on all 9 counts. The charges? Two counts of theft and 7 counts of false statement on a Medicaid claim.

As I mentioned in my previous entry I was an alternate juror which means I heard/saw the whole case presented but did not participate in the deliberations.

The story of this case begins in 1999. There was an 18-year-old girl (P) who up to this point had had a pretty rough childhood. Her parents were dead. We don’t get to know the details of that chlidhood or her parents’ demise, but we know that she grew up in St. Louis and was sent out to Seattle to stay with one of her many aunties (Aunt A) and her husband (her uncle). This young girl had some mental problems and the family at this time did not know exactly the nature of those problems.

The arrangement to stay with her Aunt A did not work out and the uncle called another of P’s aunts in Seattle (Aunt B) to say that he was putting P on a bus back to St. Louis. Aunt B told him No, do not put P on that bus – she will get lost on the way back to St. Louis! She was afraid for her niece that she would not be able to find the right bus to get on for transfers and could get lost along the way. Aunt B took in P and began to take care of her.

Within the first year Aunt B realized that P had some mental issues that she did not understand and so she took P to a doctor. It was discovered that P had a developmental disability. She had Downs Syndrome. Auntie B applied for some assistance to take care of P. She got SSI (Social Security) payments for P. Even though P was an adult, Aunt B applied to be and was named representative payee for P. That meant the checks for P would come in Aunt B’s name and she was to use those checks on things for her niece’s benefit.

Aunt B also applied to a special Medicaid Personal Care program as a paid caregiver to P. Aunt B was allotted a certain number of hours per month she could be paid for services rendered for P. This included things like personal hygiene, shopping, cooking, laundry, etc.

After a few years P decided she wanted to be more independent and she felt she could make it on her own. She no longer wanted to live at home with Aunt B. She got a part-time job at Safeway. She started staying at friends’ homes more and more. Eventually she totally moved out of Aunt B’s home and was exclusively living with friends.

You might guess what happened. Aunt B continued to collect both the Social Security and Medicaid checks. P wanted to get her own apartment and live completely independently but she needed more money than she made at Safeway. She started asking for her SSI checks and was told that the checks had been returned. But some checking with the Social Securty Administration showed that the checks had not been returned and had indeed been cashed.

There was a period of 7-9 months when Aunt B continued to claim money from Medicaid for caring for P and she continued to cash the SSI checks. It’s easy to see how this happened. Aunt B was probably desperate for money, and this money was already coming in. But that doesn’t make it right or legal. Sometimes good people do bad things.

The two counts of theft were for the money taken from Medicaid (the state) and Social Security (federal government). The 7 counts of misstatements were for each month that Aunt B. placed a call to an automated voice mail system claiming she cared for P at the full allowed amount when P was no longer residing with her.

It was clear that P did not want to testify against her Aunt B – she loves her very much. She was rather emotional and teary at times. But she got on the stand and she told the truth.

P is now living independently. She was awarded assistance with housing and backpay for her SSI quickly after they figured out what was going on. The last question P was asked when she testified was how she likes living independently. Her answer was a huge smile and the words “I LOVE it!”

I am told that sentencing will be done by the judge in a few weeks. Hopefully this will bring closure to this family who had become divided over this matter.

Adventures in Jury Duty

I reported for jury duty on Wednesday, March 4 expecting to serve for 2 days and be excused. But I was selected to sit on a jury right away! The estimate for length of trial was that we could be there through the 24th of March. Thankfully, they overestimated.

The hardest thing was rescheduling all my responsibilities for the three-week period. But aside from that, it was really a good experience. I think serving on a jury is always interesting. You get to see how the process of justice works, and you always learn a lot. And you get to meet some great people.

In the case of my jury, there were 14 of us selected. We were told that after we saw the whole trial and before deliberations began they would select two of us to be alternates. The alternates would leave and the other 12 people would deliberate and decide on the verdict. If one of the 12 got sick or became unable to serve, then an alternate would be called back and deliberations would begin again.

Interestingly, out of the 14 of us, only one was male. We spent all our breaks together during the trial, so you can just image a room full of women with lots of talk about knitting and pets and care-giving, etc. Every one of us (including the male who was a great sport about being the only man) got along great. By the third day of trial people were teasing that wouldn’t it be fun to have a potluck or bring in platters of goodies and food to the jury room? And maybe they could share some with the judge! Pretty funny.

In fact we were having SO much fun we had to ask the bailiff how much they could hear in the courtroom what was going on in the jury room. The jury room is just on the other side of the wall from the back of the courtroom, you see. Was our loud boisterous laughter disturbing anything? The bailiff (also a woman) told us that she only heard us because she was standing right in front of our door. And if we could be heard with the door closed it only meant the others in the courtroom would be jealous. It seemed like every time the bailiff opened our door to ask us to line up and return to the court room there was a roll of laughter that escaped the door before we could quiet ourselves. I remember the bailiff telling us “okay, you are having entirely too much fun in here, it’s time to go back to work!” She was smiling when she said that.

The case itself was interesting overall. Like with any trial though there were some hours of testimony that were verrry dry and we were glad for our breaks. As I mentioned above, the length of trial length was overestimated. At the end of the day on Tuesday the 10th both sides had finished presenting witnesses. We came back on Wednesday morning and were given jury instructions and then heard closing arguments. Then the clerk pulled two names out of an envelope to see who would be the alternate jurors. And I was chosen to be the second alternate! So they sent me home. The other alternate juror was the male juror. I traded email addresses with a couple people before leaving so I could find out how everything came out.

After over a week of being told I could not talk about this case until deliberations, I was now excluded from deliberations and still could not talk about it. I was “on hold” until the conclusion of deliberations because they might need me back. Late Thursday the bailiff called me to tell me the verdict and that I was now free to talk about the case.

Overall it was a good experience. I was a little saddened to be sent home “just when it was getting good” but I trusted my fellow jurors to render a fair verdict, and they did. I will write a separate entry to tell about the case.

Farewell, Dear P-I

Our newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will print its last paper edition tomorrow after 146 years of publication. I can’t express how sad this makes me feel. This paper has been the voice and historical record of a community for longer than any of us has been alive.

The P-I will continue online. For a paper with less than 120,000 print subscribers it ranks in the top 30 online newspaper venues in the country. They will be enhancing the online presence of course. Can they make it profitable? Only time will tell.

I am sad for all the people who lost their jobs. Where are those people going to find newspaper jobs these days? Only 20 of 180 newsroom staff members were retained to work on the web version. They hired 20 new sales staff for the web.

It is true that the P-I is not Seattle’s only major newspaper. The Seattle Times remains ... for now. Our subscription will be automatically switched over to the Times on Wednesday. But of course the Times is not the P-I.

Tomorrow’s last P-I will be a very special commemorative issue. They are promising 20 to 24 pages of photos and stories on the P-I’s 146-year history. We live in a large apartment complex and the paper comes to our door out in the hallway. Walter is planning to get up extra early to bring in our paper tomorrow so no one steals it before we can get to it. We will be saving that issue.

Doing My Civic Duty

Have you ever been called for jury duty? I have several times. I served on a jury when I was 21 and living in Olympia. It was a week-long criminal trial and the charge was indecent liberties. Deliberation went on quite a while but eventually we convicted the defendant. I believe he got a 30 day suspended sentence.

I have since been called for jury duty once in Kent (at the Regional Justice Center) and once or twice to the downtown King County courthouse. Each of these times I was lucky if I got called up to serve on a panel of jurors to be picked for a particular trial. I spent most of my time just waiting to be called for something. A couple times I was called to a panel but was not needed or excused for some reason. The rule in King County is that if you do not end up on a jury within the two days of your jury summons you are finished for that summons. But if you are selected for a jury you serve for the length of that trial.



A month or so ago I received a Jury Summons for March 4th and 5th. I showed up at 8am bright eyed and eager to go, but not expecting to be chosen. I was expecting yet another experience of just hanging around waiting to be called for something so I brought my book and prepared to be bored. This time such was not my fate. In fact, my name was the third name (of about 200) called that morning. I was Number 3!! What does that mean? Well in this case it meant I was in Seat #3 in the jury box for the first trial called. After voir dire (the process where they ask the jurors a bunch of questions and eliminate some) I was still there. In Seat #3. And that's where I still am. And the judge explained that this was a 3 week trial!

To say the least, I was shocked to be sitting in that seat and in that position. If you ever get called to jury duty, here is a tip for you. Bring your calendar! They ask you who would have a hardship if they had to be there every day for the length of the trial. And you have to give specifics. Fortunately I knew most of my calendar in my head. I told the judge about doctor appointments and a recent skin cancer scare for my Mom. He made me call my sister and ask her to take Mom to the appointments, which I did. So many people try to get out of jury duty for whatever reason that they are really sticklers about it being a real hardship before you can be excused.



The good news is that the length of our trial seems to be overestimated and it looks like I will serve only a few more days. Also, I'm getting my exercise in walking back and forth between the courthouse and my office a couple times a day.

The King County Courthouse is a pretty cool old building, and I must admit that I love looking at the architecture when I enter on the Third Avenue side of the building. The elevator lobby is beautiful and quite unique compared to anything else I've seen. There are also some murals on the walls of the main hallway on the first floor.

The photos above are from the ceilings in the third-floor entryway. This is where you stand in line to go through security. It can take a few minutes, so it's nice to look up and have something beautiful like this to ponder. The photo below is the first floor elevator lobby. By the way, it's not just the first floor elevator lobby that is this beautiful, all the floors are similar in the central elevator lobby area. I have not yet taken any photos of the murals on the first floor. I may have to photograph them and share those later.

Spring Ahead - In Winter??

Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!

Twice each year when the time changes I always recall which direction to move my timepieces based on the old sayings "Spring Forward" or "Fall Back". But it occurs to me that we now "Spring Forward" when it's still winter. That seems a little crazy to me. Good thing Walter sets most of our clocks.

I get a little cranky about losing an hour of sleep at this time, but of course in the Fall I love that I get it back.

Many people use this clock setting time to take care of some other twice-annual tasks such as replacing batteries in smoke detectors. Whatever is your tradition I hope you get to bed a little earlier tonight so you will be nice and refreshed tomorrow to accomplish what you need to do. Happy Time Change.

Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear - It's the #1 Killer of Women

Did you know that more women die of heart disease than men? It's true. Today is National Wear Red Day. It's a day to wear red and raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women in this country.

So what can we do about it?? Well, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute recommends the following:

Ten Commandments for a Healthy Heart

1. Know your risk factors for heart disease.

2. Talk to your doctor about reducing your risk of heart disease.

3. Have your blood pressure checked regularly.

4. Know your cholesterol numbers. [These include total cholesterol, HDL or "good" cholesterol, LDL or "bad" cholesterol, and triglycerides.]

5. Have your blood sugar level checked for diabetes.

6. Do not smoke cigarettes or use other tobacco products.

7. Eat for your heart health.

8. Get regular physical activity. [At least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most or all days of the week.]

9. Aim for a healthy weight.

10. Know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and the importance of seeking medical help immediately.

You can go to this page for more information on lowering heart disease risk.

I, for one, certainly have my work cut out for me. There are several areas where I could lower my risk. How about you?

By the way, my post title is not original. It's this year's official slogan for National Wear Red Day. And it's the truth!

Please take care of you, and spread the word to your sisters, mothers and daughters.

The Beatles!! Recreating a Moment in History

I saw a Beatles concert yesterday! Sort of. A few days ago a coworker sent me a link to this story about the 40th anniversary of The Beatles last live public performance. That last concert was an impromptu rooftop performance in London to get footage for their film "Let It Be."

A Seattle Beatles cover band, Creme Tangerine, planned a re-creation of the rooftop concert for the anniversary here in Seattle. The location? The rooftop of the Copacabana Restaurant right here in Pike Place Market. Ken Mansfield, who was the U.S. manager of The Beatles' Apple Records and who was on that rooftop at the original performance attended this one as well. Of course I had to go!

Creme Tangerine did a wonderful job recreating the concert, performing the same set list from 40 years ago plus a few more songs. The concert lasted a little over an hour. Unlike the original concert the police did not come to shut it down. It was cold out there (around 40F, the fog just lifting), but people didn't seem to mind. The music was amazing. I took some video which I have yet to download. In the meantime, I found this TV video from King5 online. It's just 4 minutes long if you'd like to check it out.

I feel fortunate to work just a few blocks from Pike Place Market so I can take advantage of events like this when they come up!