Blaw 200 Court Experience Paper

BUS LAW 200

15 December 2014

My court case experience

        I attended the circuit court on 777 Punchbowl Street.  I walked up three cases of stairs to look for an interesting case to watch.  A nice lady helped out by finding me an interesting court case, where a trial jury was present. It was the closing trial; to start it off we all had to stand to let the jury walk in and the judge walk in.  The judge talked for a very long time about what the jury was to uphold by their opinions.  I learned that reasonable doubt meant the defendant was not guilty and not having reasonable doubt meant they were guilty.  Reggie Johnson was the defendant.  The judge seemed very strict to ensure the jury makes a fair decision.  

        The case was the state of Hawai’i against Reggie Johnson.  He was being accused of many accounts of sexual assault, a kidnapping and impersonating an officer.  The first account of sexual assault was on December 30, 2013 in Honolulu.  The victim was accused of sexual assault knowingly and in the 2nd degree.  The judge talked very quickly about the many accounts and each started with the date, how knowing the defendant was and what the charge was.  The victim’s name was Victoria Wood the first account of 2nd degree sexual assault was charged against Mr. Johnson was that he, “stuck his finger in Ms. Wood’s genital opening, by compulsion, and recklessly.  Judge described what all the terms meant in detail.  His second account was sexual assault in 2nd degree where Mr. Johnson, “put his penis into her mouth, knowingly (compulsion), and recklessly.  The 3rd account of sexual assault was in the 3rd degree, where Mr. Johnson was charged with rapping Ms. Wood knowingly, without her consent and recklessly.  His account in kidnapping was for possible because he pretended to be a law enforcement to get the woman scared to follow his instructions.  There was a firearm offense was claimed at the beginning that must not be considered the judge stated.  The judge called a recess and told the jury that they cannot talk about the case during any recesses.  

        After the judge stated all the accounts of charges against Mr. Reggie Johnson the attorneys were called to give there final arguments, which each of them had forty minutes maximum time to speak each.  Prosecutor Ms. Yamamoto was very professional and had a power point presentation for the jury.  She claimed that Ms. Wood’s was naïve; the victim Victoria was following the defendant’s orders of being a “military police officer,” which was showing Ms. Wood’s the authority she thought he had.  Ms. Wood’s was with her boyfriend at the time when the defendant approached them and scared them into stop doing the illegal sexual acts they were doing.  The children ran away and separated.  Defendant came with his car told her it, “was going to be okay,” told her he would drop her off.  She got in scared of getting into trouble with the police and he locked the door on her, first account of kidnapping.  Told her to take off her pants, all three accounts of sexual assault were explained in detail.  Tried to show the jury the pain she felt and her helplessness.  Dr. Wayne Lee examined her Ms. Yamamoto explained, said her pain of her genital area was from a force.  Ms. Yamamoto brought up the defendant’s three different stories of what happened, which made him sound very guilty in my opinion. The stories did not match up, she claimed he had a plan and should be guilty for all charges.