Sara Dorsey's Couey Court Blog for Tuesday, July 11 By: Sara Dorsey Originally Posted on 7/11/2006 8:41:54 AM Last Updated on 7/11/2006 2:46:49 PM 8:28 am -- Good Morning! We are waiting for court to start today. My eyes won’t stay open because I made a pot of coffee in my hotel room and walked out without it! But who needs coffee when you are listening to exciting jury selection! It is day two of this process. Yesterday, the judge interviewed 40 people, keeping 20 and cutting 20. Today the court spokesperson says about 185 people should show up. Prosecutors say 60 is the magic number to move onto the next round of in-depth questioning. So of the 185 people, we need 40 to be allowed to stay. Then tomorrow, those that were kept on will come back to be requisitioned together. Prosecutors say those questions will be general…one example…what are your feelings on the death penalty. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that Thursday will be the magic day and then we will have to see if the judge chooses to go with opening arguments in Citrus County on Friday or if he will hold off until Monday. Tavares is a cute little town. I have not taken the grand tour, but we are staying at the Best Western across from a beautiful new hospital. There is an Applebees, Dunkin Donuts, CVS, plus a few family-owned restaurants!! I’m dying to get an ice cream cone from this place that looks like a giant cone with a mound of vanilla on top! I lick my lips every time I drive by. I had gator tail the first night I arrived at a little sports bar… it was tasty. Last night I had a small steak, which was phenomenal. We finally left the courthouse at 8:30 last night, so probably anything would have tasted good. I’m still holding out hope someone is going to deliver a coffee. The coffee, jury selection saga continues! 8:50 -- Couey is in court wearing the same gray suit as yesterday. 8:54 -- Judge is here now. He is telling the media to not use potential jurors' faces or names. 8:59 -- The defense just said he thinks there is a lot of media exposure in Lake County too, and asked for another change of venue. That was denied by the judge. 9:01 -- Thirty prospective jurors in the first group are being brought into the courtroom. They will be questioned individually, just like yesterday. The focus is still hardship issues that could present themselves to a sequestered juror and pre-trial publicity, including: what these potential jurors know about this case, John Couey, Jessica Lunsford, and what evidence law enforcement had. 9:12 -- First juror is on the stand and by 9:14 he is released and told to go. His biggest concern was not being paid by his job for the three weeks this trial is expected to last. The court is excusing people who would face extreme financial hardships. 9:15 -- Second juror is up. The judge is asking if she has formed any definite and fixed opinions on the case. She remembers Couey's confession. The defense never loves to hear that, since jurors will never hear the confession. She was quickly released. 9:16 -- Potential number three is on the stand. We are 0 for 2 right now. Let's see how this one goes. This woman, a customer service rep, says she knows nothing about this case. This woman was away at college last year when Jessica was killed. She says her college in Pensacola, didn't allow televisions, so she only knows this is a high profile case. I'm gonna bet this one will be a keeper. 1:59 pm -- We're just waiting for court to start again...It broke an hour ago for lunch. Ok so I've been getting some questions about John Couey wearing headphones in this proceeding. Here's the deal, when attorneys go to sidebar to talk to the judge all microphones are turned off so the conversations are private. Couey has a right to hear what is happening, but he can't just get up and walk there because he's shackled under the table. Instead, he puts on the headphones and then he can hear what the judge and the attorneys are discussing. I hope that clears up things for all of you. At this point, Citrus County tells us they hope to wrap jury selection up by Wednesday. If that happens, opening statements would begin on Thursday morning in Citrus County. 2:30 -- Apparently, during the lunch break, three potential jurors overheard a conversation that a member of the media was having on a cell phone with a speaker phone. That person was allegedly talking about what the jury would and would not get to hear in the trial. One of the jurors told the bailiff. Once lunch was over, the judge called those three jurors in to talk about what they heard. All of it happened in a public area, because jurors are just milling around while they wait during breaks. The judge has restricted the media to stay away from far end of the public area by a jury pool room. The judge said he doesn't want anyone to sabotage this selection process, even if it is unintentional. I can tell you, yesterday, we were trying to interview potential jurors who had been dismissed and will not be chosen for trial, and my photographer said one that was still in the pool, who will be coming back for more questioning on Wednesday, was sitting outside directly across from where the media is reporting from. Sara Dorsey, Tampa Bay's 10 News http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=35102

Sara Dorsey's Couey Court Blog for Thursday, July 13 By: Sara Dorsey 8:27 am -- Good morning Couey court blog readers! We are awaiting the start of Day 4. Today is the first day of round two questioning. Of the 163 people questioned since Monday, 58 have moved on to this next round and will be questioned more today. Court officials tell us that all the potential jurors will sit in the same room today and will be asked general questions. We know, for sure, one question will be the potential jurors' feelings on the death penalty. Each side gets 12 strikes and can strike a potential juror for no reason. If you get a strike, you are free to leave and stand no chance of being on this jury. We are a little sleepy. Yesterday, court ended early and we got out of here about 7:30 pm! We are watching court officals trying to determine how to fit the 58 potential jurors and the media all in one courtroom. We all have our fingers crossed today that court officials can fishish this thing up today. If they do that it is likely the judge could schedule opening statements to be made on Friday in Citrus County. Court officials say they will start the day after jury selection complete, unless completion happens on a Friday. That's about it. I'll have more when this day gets started. 10:03 -- We have no idea what is going on, but court has still not started. Couey is not in the courtroom yet. Court officicals just told me a juror got mixed up with what time they were required to be at court. I'm worried this could mess up the day and drive this thing into Friday. 10:20 -- Court has finally started. A potential juror was late. One has been dismissed for medical reasons, so 57 will be questioned today. The defense asked for another change of venue -- that's three days in a row -- and the judge denied the request. 10:45 -- We started with 57 potential jurors. Before questioning began, the judge asked for any jurors who have heard anything that could be considered inappropriate to come forward. Each juror is telling the judge privately what he or she knows. So far, one juror has been excused. So we are now at 56. The process continues. 10:50 -- Ok, jurors are still talking to the judge privately about anything they might have heard over the last few days that could be considered inappropriate. Another lady was just dismissed. We are now at 55 potential jurors in the pool. Another man is talking to the judge. He was just dismissed. Another woman after him was just let go... we are now at 53. Another man has just been released... the number stands at 52. 10:57 -- 51 jurors now stand. But there is a line still waiting to talk to the judge about things they may have learned about this trial in the days they've been waiting to be called back into court. A man is talking right now. We're down to 50. Now a lady is up... oops she's been released. Ok, 49 now is the number that will go through the second round of questioning. 11:15 -- Ok, the judge just told these people that if a jury is seated today they will be sequestered today. That means someone else will have to go get their belongings. They will not get anytime to get their life in order. We think the judge probably made that decision because he just lost more than 10 jurors who had heard things about this case since they were first individually qustioned. They are under a court order not to talk about the case or listen to any reports about it. Apparently, either by accident or on purpose, some of them got information they shouldn't have. Now the judge is asking the pool how many would face a hardship by being sequestered immediately. Sara Dorsey, Tampa Bay's 10 News http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=35297