Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Judge warns of mistrial in Corey Jones case
The judge in the police shooting trial of ex-cop Nouman Raja expressed fears Thursday that a mistrial could result from jurors seeing rallies by supporters of victim Corey Jones’ family.
It’s a case that continued a national outcry over police killings of young black men across the nation. The 31-year-old Jones was a stranded motorist when thenPalm Beach Gardens officer Raja shot him three times at
3:15 a.m. Oct. 18, 2015.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Marx cited his concerns about trial disruptions after learning about a midday demonstration outside the courthouse by groups including Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward and Families Against Police Brutality. The Jones family did not arrange or participate in the rally.
“I can’t stop anything that happens outside the courthouse but I will tell everybody, if these jurors observe anything … I’m going to have to ask them their feelings and depending on what their answers are, I could be forced to grant a mistrial on this case,” Marx said. “It’s the last thing I want to do.”
The six jurors and four alternates wound up staying inside the building eating pizza during a lunch break, while about a dozen people carrying protest signs stood in a circle outside on a sidewalk.
Asked if he was concerned about the chances of a mistrial, Carlos Naranjo of the Black Lives Matter group said, “That’s a hypothetical that’s not going to happen.”
“We have a Constitutional right of assembly,” the Hollywood resident told reporters. “It is what democracy is. It’s civic engagement.”
Tifanny Burks, another group member, added, “We’re exercising our human rights by being out here today and standing in solidarity with the [Jones] family.”
While the jurors are not being sequestered at a hotel in the evenings, Marx has ordered them to stay off social media and avoid watching television news reports or reading newspaper articles about the case.
The judge said he doesn’t want the jury to be exposed to anything that could elicit sympathy for the victim or support for
law enforcement. To that end, last week he ordered that no one attending the trial will be allowed to wear suggestive clothing that favors either side.
This means that any police officers who are spectators in the courtroom are forbidden from wearing uniforms, while no one on the victim’s side may don “Justice for Corey” T-shirts.
Marx wrote that “spectators wearing clothing or uniforms that display insignia, messages, pictures or the like, in clear favor of either the State or Defendant will not be permitted inside of the courtroom or in any location within the courthouse where … members of the jury may be.”
The trial continued for a third day Thursday without any disruptions.
Prosecutors have already presented their most significant pieces of evidence concerning the death of Jones, a musician whose Hyundai Santa Fe broke down in the southbound exit ramp at PGA Boulevard as he headed home from a gig.
The jurors have twice heard an audio recording of Jones’ call for roadside assistance that captured sounds of his encounter with Raja and the six shots fired from the plainclothes cop’s gun.
The prosecutors also played for the jury a video of Raja providing statements to investigators about four and a half hours after the shooting. Raja said over and over that he immediately identified himself as a cop when he approached Jones, but was threatened at gunpoint and shot Jones in self-defense.
The prosecution argues the roadside assistance call shows that Raja, 41, lied about the tragedy.
Judge Marx told the jurors they can plan for just a half-day of court on Friday, and the prosecution will present its final witnesses on Monday.