Thursday (7/19): Prosecution Continues

Prosecution called a detective who had diagrammed the scene.He used skid marks, photos, and witness testimony to reconstruct what hadhappened. He testified that Drew had “captured the intersection,” a term thatis closely related to right-of-way. Drew was further in the intersection and had right-of-way when the collisionoccurred. Due to the length of skid marks, it was clear that Drew reacted toGalo turning in his way and attempted to stop.

After we broke for lunch the PD began his cross. Heattempted to debunk the testimony and only succeeded in making himself looklike a fool. He brought out an easel and attempted to draw a simplified diagramof two cars entering an intersection with varying parameters such as speed,angle, and who entered first. The officer quickly put the PD down, insistingthat if two cars entered an intersection, regardless of parameters, they shouldpass each other safely. The PD continued to simplify the situation. Now therewere only two objects heading towardseach other. But the PD had clearly lost his steam and never got anywhere closeto making a coherent point, let alone manufacturing doubt about the officer’stestimony. He only succeeded in putting the jury to sleep and scribbling on theeasel with different color markers. Almost felt bad for the guy.