Not guilty!

Last week, or so, I got an email from a guy's mother telling me her son, who had been tried for domestic assault, was found not guilty by a jury. I knew that already and the case was on my list of things to do that day, as the jury had deliberated past deadline the day before. Later, the defendant himself came up to the office to let me know the jury's verdict. The mother's email was a little scratchy, but my conversation with the gentleman was fine, if brief.

I wish more people would contact me when their cases settle. Many times cases slip beneath my radar and their conclusions never get reported. One of the main reasons for this is how the court is organized and, to be honest, how I'm disorganized.

Monday in Bennington Superior Court Criminal Division is “arraignment day.” That's when arraignment hearings are held for all the cases where there's no imminent danger of the defendant fleeing or getting into more trouble. All the arraignments are on a list and it's a simple matter of asking the clerks for certain case files. The court also has an “extras” list. These are folks who, for whatever reason, need to be arraigned right away. Extras can come on any day, usually around 1 p.m.

There is no list of resolved cases. Sure, some are scheduled for changes of plea or sentencing, but they're not always listed as such and they come sporadically, making it easy for them to slip past the media.

I've been working on a way to track the cases I write about and perhaps it's time I doubled down on my efforts, but it would be nice if defendants, or their attorneys, let me know, politely, when their cases resolve. A few months ago I began putting the word out to defense attorneys I have a rapport with to feel free to let me know when one of their cases settles. Obviously I don't expect to hear from either defendant or attorney when there's a conviction.

We often hear that the first article “gets splashed on the front page” while the follow-up gets buried in the back, but it's been my experience that most court news ends up on page two, even the initial article. Maybe by “front page” they mean highest in our website's “most viewed” section, which is dictated entirely by readers.