Hall et al v. City of Fairfield et al

Filing 165

ORDER RE TWO TRIAL DOCUMENTS signed by Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr. on 4/3/2012. Attached are the Court's voir dire questions and preliminary jury instructions. The Court notes that certain of Plaintiffs' proposed voir dire questions appe ar aimed at "lay[ing] a foundation for [their] case," and inappropriately seek to instruct the jury on the law. DeLaCruz v. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co., 405 F.2d 459, 462 (5th Cir. 1968). "While... a [party] is entitled to a voir dire that fairly and adequately probes a juror's qualifications, a [party] is not necessarily entitled to test the jurors on their capacity to accept his [or her] theory of the case." United States v. Toomey,764 F.2d 678, 683 (9th Cir. 1985). Further, the parties are notified that the Court only has nine court days within which trial must be completed. Therefore, if a party reasonably opines that more time is needed, that party shall request a continuance of the trial date. (Zignago, K.)

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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Markus M. Hall, Monique G.
Rankin, Lindsey K. Sanders,

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Plaintiffs,
v.
City of Fairfield, Officer Nick
McDowell, Officer Chris Grimm,
Officer Tom Shackford, Officer
Zack Sandoval, and Sergeant
Steve Crane,
Defendants.
________________________________

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2:10-cv-00508-GEB-DAD
TWO TRIAL DOCUMENTS

Attached are the Court’s voir dire questions and preliminary
jury instructions.

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The Court notes that certain of Plaintiffs’ proposed voir dire

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questions appear aimed at “lay[ing] a foundation for [their] case,” and

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inappropriately seek to instruct the jury on the law. DeLaCruz v.

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Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co., 405 F.2d 459, 462 (5th Cir. 1968). “While

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. . . a [party] is entitled to a voir dire that fairly and adequately

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probes a juror's qualifications, a [party] is not necessarily entitled

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to test the jurors on their capacity to accept his [or her] theory of

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the case.” United States v. Toomey,764 F.2d 678, 683 (9th Cir. 1985).

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Further, the parties are notified that the Court only has nine

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court days within which trial must be completed. Therefore, if a party

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reasonably opines that more time is needed, that party shall request a

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continuance of the trial date.

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Dated:

April 3, 2012

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GARLAND E. BURRELL, JR.
United States District Judge

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Markus M. Hall, Monique G.
Rankin, Lindsey K. Sanders,
Plaintiffs,
v.
City of Fairfield, Officer
Nick McDowell, Officer Chris
Grimm, Officer Tom Shackford,
Officer Zack Sandoval, and
Sergeant Steve Crane,
Defendants.
______________________________

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2:10-cv-00508-GEB-DAD
VOIR DIRE

Thank you for your presence and anticipated cooperation
in the jury selection questioning process we are about to begin. This
process concerns the right to a trial by jury, which is a right that
the founders of this nation considered an important component of our
constitutional system.
The court personnel who will assist me in this trial are
on the platform below me. The Courtroom Deputy is Shani Furstenau.
She is on the platform below me on my left side. Next to her is the
Certified Court Reporter, [__________________].
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We are about to begin what is known as voir dire. The
purpose of voir dire is to ascertain whether you can be a fair and
impartial juror on this case. Near or at the end of the process, each
party can use a certain amount of what are called peremptory
challenges, which excuse a potential juror from sitting as a juror
on this case. A potential juror can also be excused for other
reasons.
1.

Ms. Furstenau, please administer the oath to the panel.

2.

Counsel, the Jury Administrator has already randomly

selected potential jurors and placed their names on the sheet that
has been given to each party in the numerical sequence in which they
were randomly selected. Each juror has been placed in his or her
randomly-selected seat.
3.

I will ask a series of questions to the jurors as a

group. If you have a response, please raise your hand or the number
you’ve been given, which reflects your seat number. Generally, you
will be given an opportunity to respond in accordance with the
numerical order in which you are seated, with the juror in the lowest
numbered seat responding first. If no hand is raised, I will simply
state "no response" for the record and then ask the next question.
If you know it is your turn to respond to a question, you may respond
before I call your name or your seat number, by stating your last
name or just your seat number, then your response. That should

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expedite the process.
4.

In this civil case, the parties dispute whether the

plaintiffs were falsely arrested at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in
Fairfield, California during the early morning hours of July 4, 2009.
The parties also dispute whether unreasonable force was used against
Plaintiff Lindsey Sanders during her arrest.
Raise your hand if there anything about the allegations
or about anything else I’ve said which causes you to feel that you
might not be a fair juror in this particular case.
5.

Raise your hand if you have any knowledge of the facts

or events in this case.
6.

The parties have informed me that the evidence and

argument portion of the trial should be completed in approximately
7-10 court days, after which the case will be submitted to the jury
for jury deliberation. We will be in trial on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m. But as soon as you
begin jury deliberation, you will be expected to deliberate every
day, except weekends, from 9:00 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m. until you
complete your deliberation.
If you cannot participate as juror during these times,
raise your hand.
7.

Would Plaintiffs’ counsel introduce [himself/themselves],

[his/their] clients, and indicate any witness that [his/their]

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clients may choose to call.
8.

Defendants’ counsel now has the opportunity to do the

same thing.
Raise your hand if you know or have had any interaction
with any person just introduced or named.
9.
testimony

Raise
of

a

your

hand

witness

if

just

you

would

because

that

tend

to believe the

witness

is

a

law

enforcement officer and for no other reason.
10.
testimony

Raise
of

a

your

hand

witness

if

just

you

would

because

that

tend

not

witness

to believe
is

a

law

enforcement officer and for no other reason.
11.

Raise your hand if you have ever served as a juror in the

past?
a.

State whether it was a civil or criminal case, and

state whether the jury reached a verdict, but do not state the
actual verdict reached.
12. Raise your hand if you will not be able to give your full
attention to this case.
13.

Raise your hand if you, any member of your family, or any

close friend has ever been employed by a law enforcement agency,
including military law enforcement?
a.

Could what you just stated have a bearing on your

ability to be a fair and impartial juror in this case?

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14.
close

Raise your hand if you, any member of your family, or any

friend

has

ever

received

any

special

training

in

law

enforcement, criminal justice or corrections.
a.

Could what you just stated have a bearing on your

ability to be a fair and impartial juror in this case.
15. Raise your hand if you will not be able to decide this
case based solely on the evidence presented at the trial.
16. Raise your hand if you will not apply the law I will give
you if you believe a different law should apply.
17. Raise your hand if you are opposed to judging a witness’s
credibility.
18.

Raise your hand if there is any reason why you could not

be a fair and impartial juror.
19.

Now, I am going to ask you to put yourselves in the shoes

of the lawyers and the parties in this case. Raise your hand if you
have information that you think should be shared before each side is
given

an

opportunity

to

exercise

what

are

called

peremptory

challenges.
20.

The Courtroom Deputy Clerk will give juror number 1 a

sheet on which there are questions that I want each of you to
answer. Please pass the sheet to the juror next to you after you
answer the questions.
(a)

Your name;

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(b)

Your age and the age of your adult and/or minor

(c)

Your educational background and the educational

children;

background of any person residing with you; and
(d)

The present and former occupations for you and any

person residing with you.

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Markus M. Hall, Monique G.
Rankin, Lindsey K. Sanders,
Plaintiffs,
v.
City of Fairfield, Officer
Nick McDowell, Officer Chris
Grimm, Officer Tom Shackford,
Officer Zack Sandoval, and
Sergeant Steve Crane,
Defendants.
______________________________

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2:10-cv-00508-GEB-DAD
PRELIMINARY JURY
INSTRUCTIONS

Preliminary Instruction No. 1

Ladies and gentlemen: You are now the jury in this case.
It is my duty to instruct you on the law.
You must not infer that I have an opinion regarding the
evidence or what your verdict should be from these instructions or
from anything I may say or do.
It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence
in the case. To those facts you will apply the law as I give it to
you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree
with it or not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes
or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or sympathy. That means that you
must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will
recall that you took an oath to do so.
In following my instructions, you must follow all of them
and not single out some and ignore others; they are all important.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 2

I am now going to give you jury admonitions that you must
remember. When we take recesses, I will reference these admonitions
by telling you to remember the admonitions or something similar to
that. You are required to follow these admonitions whether or not I
remind you to remember them:
First, keep an open mind throughout the trial, and do not
decide what the verdict should be until you and your fellow jurors
have completed your deliberations at the end of the case.
Second, because you must decide this case based only on
the evidence received in the case and on my instructions as to the
law that applies, you must not be exposed to any other information
about the case or to the issues it involves during the course of your
jury duty. Thus, until the end of the case or unless I tell you
otherwise:
Do not communicate with anyone in any way and do not let
anyone else communicate with you in any way about the merits of the
case or anything to do with it. This includes discussing the case in
person, in writing, by phone or electronic means, via e-mail, text
messaging, or any Internet chat room, blog, web site or other
feature. This applies to communicating with your fellow jurors until
I give you the case for deliberation, and it applies to communicating

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with everyone else including your family members, your employer, and
the people involved in the trial, although you may notify your family
and your employer that you have been seated as a juror in the case.
But, if you are asked or approached in any way about your jury
service or anything about this case, you must respond that you have
been ordered not to discuss the matter and to report the contact to
the court.
Because you will receive all the evidence and legal
instruction you properly may consider to return a verdict: do not
read, watch, or listen to any news or media accounts or commentary
about the case or anything to do with it; do not do any research,
such as consulting dictionaries, searching the Internet or using
other reference materials; and do not make any investigation or in
any other way try to learn about the case on your own. The law
requires these restrictions to ensure the parties have a fair trial
based on the same evidence that each party has had an opportunity to
address.
Third, if you need to communicate with me, simply give
a signed note to my courtroom clerk, or to the court reporter if my
courtroom clerk is not present, who will give it to me.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 3

There are rules of evidence that control what can be
received into evidence. When a lawyer asks a question or offers an
exhibit into evidence, and a lawyer on the other side thinks that it
is not permitted by the rules of evidence, that lawyer may object.
If I overrule the objection, the question may be answered or the
exhibit received. If I sustain the objection, the question cannot be
answered, and the exhibit cannot be received. Whenever I sustain an
objection to a question, you must ignore the question and must not
guess what the answer might have been.
Sometimes I may order that evidence be stricken from the
record and that you disregard or ignore the evidence. That means that
when you are deciding the case, you must not consider the evidence
that I told you to disregard.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 4

During deliberations, you will have to make your decision
based on what you recall of the evidence. You will not have a
transcript of the trial. I urge you to pay close attention to the
testimony as it is given.
If at any time you cannot hear or see what is said or
shown during the trial, let me know so that I can correct the
problem.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 5

If you wish, you may take notes to help you remember the
evidence. If you do take notes, please keep them to yourself until
you and your fellow jurors go to the jury room to decide the case.
Do not let note-taking distract you. When you leave, your notes shall
be left on the seat on which you are seated.
Whether or not you take notes, you should rely on your
own memory of the evidence. Notes are only to assist your memory.
You should not be overly influenced by your notes or those of your
fellow jurors.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 6

From time to time during the trial, it may become
necessary for me to talk with the attorneys out of the hearing of the
jury, either by having a conference at the bench when the jury is
present in the courtroom, or by calling a recess. Please understand
that while you are waiting, we are working. The purpose of these
conferences is not to keep relevant information from you, but to
decide how certain evidence is to be treated under the rules of
evidence and to avoid confusion and error.
We will, of course, do what we can to keep the number and
length of these conferences to a minimum. I may not always grant an
attorney's request for a conference. Do not consider my granting or
denying a request for a conference as any indication of my opinion
of the case or of what your verdict should be.

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Preliminary Instruction No. 7

The next phase of the trial will now begin. First, each
side may make an opening statement. An opening statement is not
evidence. It is simply an outline to help you understand what that
party expects the evidence will show. A party is not required to make
an opening statement.
Plaintiffs will then present evidence, and counsel for
the

Defendants

may

cross-examine.

Then

Defendants

may

present

evidence, and counsel for the Plaintiffs may cross-examine.
After the evidence has been presented, I will instruct
you on the law that applies to the case and the attorneys will make
closing arguments.
After that, you will go to the jury room to deliberate
on your verdict.

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