jury duty

LloydXmas wrote:

eeriepadave wrote:

just got a letter in the mail for jury duty at the end of Aug.

skip it

eeriepadave said:

LloydXmas wrote:

eeriepadave wrote:

just got a letter in the mail for jury duty at the end of Aug.

skip it

WEST CHESTER - A Chester County judge Tuesday sent the female half of
a "toxic" New Garden couple to prison for two assaults on her husband,
incidents that represent a fraction of the problems the couple have
had over the years.
"Of this type of domestic disturbance, this is probably the worst case
I have seen in 15 years (as a judge)," said Judge Howard F. Riley Jr.
during a sentencing hearing for Kathy Y. Murray at which he heard of
the ongoing alcohol-fueled problems she and her husband have had over
the past decade since they were wed.
Police have been called to the couple's home as many as 50 times in
the year preceding Murray's arrest in February. A prosecutor in the
case said the couple argued about everything, from her son's behavior
to the location of the car keys, and called police every time they
fought.
"They are involved in a 10-year war, not a 10-year marriage," Riley
said after hearing the stories. "I probably should send both of them
to state prison."
Instead, Riley accepted the prosecution's proposed sentence for Murray
of one year less one day to two years less two days in Chester County
prison. Any sentence of less than two years overall is automatically
served in the county system. He also ordered four years consecutive
probation after her release.
Murray had pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, simple
assault, possession of instruments of crime, escape and possession of
implements of escape.
Riley further imposed a condition of her release that she not have any
criminal contact with her husband, Woodrow Murray, and that she not
live in a house where there are guns or alcohol present.
Murray, 52, of Landenberg, was taken into custody by New Garden police
on Feb. 2 after she allegedly attacked her husband at their home with
an aluminum baseball bat because she was upset that he had moved a
computer so he could paint a bedroom in the house. Woodrow Murray
suffered bruises to his abdomen, shoulders and back, but was not
seriously inured.
Kathy Murray was intoxicated at the time, said Assistant District
Attorney Michelle Frei.
The attack, Frei said, "went beyond words, and it went well beyond
fists when she picked up that aluminum baseball bat," she said to
Riley, displaying the weapon in court.
Two days earlier, she had gone to the couple's automotive garage and
again attacked her husband, this time because of an argument he had
with her son over drugs found in the home. She punched him repeatedly
with a closed fist, Frei said.
The roles between the couple have been reversed in the past, Frei
acknowledged. In 2006, Woodrow Murray was convicted of making
terroristic threats against his wife. One of the officers involved in
Kathy Murray's arrest said that in the brief time he had been with the
New Garden force, he had been to their home at least 30 times.
When police arrested her on Feb. 2, two officers took her to the New
Garden Police Department, where they handcuffed her to a holding
bench. Minutes later when checking on her, they discovered that she
had somehow freed herself from the handcuffs and fled the building.
A third officer caught up with her in a field less than a mile from
the police station, and she was returned to the bench. Later, the
officers found again that she had freed herself from the cuffs, but
caught her before she could flee. They shackled her arms and legs this
time before her transport to a preliminary arraignment and eventually
to Chester County Prison.
Frei told Riley that Kathy Murray had apparently unlocked the
handcuffs with a key she had hidden on her and which the two male
officers did not find because they did not feel comfortable doing a
full search of her after the first incident.
The key, Frei said, was discovered later while Kathy Murray was in
prison, and an informant told corrections officers that she had one in
her cell. It was found hidden in the sole of one of her shoes.
Kathy Murray's attorney, Mark Rassman, told Riley that he did not
believe that his client had the key when she was in the police office,
and that she likely procured it in prison.
But he said her flight from police custody that night and a subsequent
scuffle with the officer who tracked her down showed a disrespect for
the officers who had treated her civilly over the years she complained
about abuse from her husband.
"I told her it was like spitting in their face," Rassman said.
Rassman had argued in favor of a light sentence for Kathy Murray by
saying the injuries against Woodrow Murray were not serious. The real
problem, he said, was the couple's marriage.
His client and her husband, he said, "do not need to be together,"
Rassman said. "It is not a good situation."
Kathy Murray apologized to Riley for her behavior, although she said
she disputed some of the actions that Frei attributed to her.
"I just wish none of this had ever happened," she said.