Monday, November 11, 2013

When Is A Jury Trial Not A Jury Trial?

Dan Abrams' right-wing media website Mediaite (aka NewsBusters for Profound Dummies), declares that a jury acquitted Sam Donaldson of a DUI charge via verdict:
Verdict Reached in ABC Reporter Sam Donaldson’s DUI Trial
A jury on Friday acquitted veteran ABC anchorSam Donaldson of DUI charges filed against him late last year.
The Delaware trial reportedly lasted five hours and, following his acquittal, the veteran reporter strode over to the officer who’d arrested him and told her: “You did your duty as you saw fit. I bear no animus toward you whatsoever.
Not really.
GEORGETOWN — A Sussex County judge dismissed charges against former ABC political correspondent Sam Donaldson, who last year was arrested in Lewes and charged with driving drunk.

Judge Rosemary Beauregard said the arresting officer’s report was incomplete and a failed sobriety test was improperly administered.
Donaldson appeared Nov. 8 in a nearly empty Sussex County courtroom. The state would call only one witness – arresting officer Katie Couchman of Lewes Police Department. Couchman testified she stopped Donaldson about 8 p.m., Dec. 1, 2012, because he was driving on the shoulder of the road, to the right of the westbound lane.
You'd think that Dan Abrams would employ people who could rewrite articles accurately, if not actually understand and/or distinguish between complex legal concepts like "judge" and "jury."

1 comment:

R. Porrofatto said...

What's even more fun is that the Mediaite rewrite links to the original where the page title and headline is "Delaware judge finds Sam Donaldson not guilty after drunken driving trial".