Allan Appel Photo
It was difficult to find a jury of the defendant’s peers; after all, he’s so big he combs his beard with a pine tree. Nevertheless, the case of the United States vs. Paul Bunyan proceeded to an exciting conclusion Wednesday afternoon in New Haven’s U.S. District Court.
For the the fourth year, fifth graders from John C. Daniels Middle School performed a mock trial there in partnership with lawyers from Yale-New Haven Hospital and other legal volunteers.
Because he is the tallest kid in the Daniels’ fifth grade, Joshua Morales played the role of Mr. Bunyan, charged with, among other environmental offenses, cutting down trees without permission. His lawyer coach was Sandy Roussas from the firm of Neubert, Pepe, and Monteith.
Appearances certainly matter when you’re 30 feet tall. So before Bunyan took the stand, Roussas whispered to him to be “confident in our defense.” The alibi: “I was doing it for others.”
Just because he poured a gazillion gallons of ketchup in the river to make it the Red River, he was also clearing land, building houses. He was expanding America for the public good. No harm to the environment was done.
In previous years, Bunyan’s defense has prevailed, said Lisa Fay, the assistant general counsel for the YNHH, and coordinator of the event.
With eyes of the world on the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, would this year’s outcome be any different?
In a legal experiment, half the jurors saw a video on deforestation. The other half saw an animated heroic video about the great tall tale figure from the forests.
For the prosecution, Jamar Nichols tried to undermine the credibility of Mr. Whiskers, a government witness played by Thomas Jackson (seated). He was only mildly successful.
When Babe the Blue Ox (Jeremy Cajigas, in the blue shirt, of course) lumbered over to testify, Nichols grew more aggressive. There was also real concern that Babe would crush the witness chair when he took the stand in his boss’s defense.
“Didn’t you know about federal regulations?”
“No, I’m an ox. I can’t read,” Babe snorted.
Nichols was later successful, however, at getting Bunyan to admit that his deforestation and pouring ketchup in the river were done without a license.
Still, the gargantuan lumberjack contended, “A lot of people are happier for what I did.”
The atmosphere grew tense as ElJoel Molina rose for the prosecution, and raised his voice eloquently: “We demand Paul and Blue work an hour for every tree cut.”
The courtroom burst into partisan applause. Presiding Judge Antonio Robaina called for order.
It now turned to the jury to decide the case.
In tense public voting, the tally seven to seven. There had never been a hung jury before in the trial of Paul Bunyan. In a second and this time secret ballot, Janissa Vidal (at left in photo) changed her vote from not guilty to guilty.
“He hurt the animals,” she concluded.
However her colleague Joy Knight did the opposite. “He gave food and built houses,” she contended.
You could feel the tension at both the prosecution and defense tables. Finally Judge Robaina called for the foreman to present the secret ballot to the clerk. She counted ten for the prosecution, four for the defense.
“Justice has been done!” called out Eljoel Molina.
Jamar Nichols took a dimmer view of the justice meted.
“Two people voted for prosecution because their best friend talked them into it,” he contended.
Lisa Faye said she didn’t hear in the deliberations among the kids a word about BP or oil spills in the Gulf. She attributed the unusually close verdict to the effects of the two different videos.
Afterwards, Judge Robaina, who was born in Cuba and is fluent in Spanish, took questions. (The entire proceeding was translated into Spanish as it proceeded since John C. Daniels is a bilingual school.) Did he have pets? the judge was asked. (Two bulldogs, one English and one French.) His favorite ice cream? (Vanilla.)
Thirty-three fifth graders had had a unique experience, working with some 15 lawyers over six weeks in preparation. Who knows? Whatever Paul Bunyan’s fate on appeal, maybe a future Supreme Court justice or environmental lawyer will emerge as a result.