The rules are different in juvenile court. There is no finding of guilt or innocense but a finding of True or Not True. That was part of the instruction given to the three men, three women jury this morning in Judge Roy Quintanilla's County Court where the case of a 12-year old girl accused of assaulting a police officer was being heard. Finding the charges True would result in the girl being determined to be Delinquent.
The trial, which began last week, began closing arguments this morning with a near capacity courtroom. Several police officers, including the four accused in a federal lawsuite of assaulting the girl, were in the courtroom. On the other side of the aisle were members of St. Augustine Episcopal Church, where the girl on trial and her family are members.
The story, which has circulated the internet and the media for over a month, bringing harsh criticism upon the officers and the police department, began on August 22, 2006 when four Galveston vice officers, dispatched into a crime ridden neighborhood on information that two drug dealers and a prostitute were plying their trades in the area.
When the police arrived in an unmarked van they discovered the girl, Dymond Larae Milburn, standing in a yard near the edge of the street. When the officers got out of the van to question her, she took off running and screaming towards the house where she lives. According to testimony, she ran to the house and grabbed the electrical breaker box. Officers believed she was trying to stuff drugs inside the box. Two bags of drugs were discovered on the ground in the yard, according to prosecutors.
As officer David Rourke tried to restrain Milburn, she began screaming for her daddy and screaming, "F..k the cops, I hate cops!" Her screaming was heard by a witness several doors down the street who testified in court. He also testified he heard the police telling the girl over and over, "Police, police, calm down, we're the police." She kept flailing and swinging at the officer, hitting him in his face and neck.
The defense claimed throughout the trial the girl did not know the men were the police and she was in fear that she was being attacked by criminals and maybe abducted. All the officers were dressed in raid gear which includes black shirts with POLICE inscribed in big, white letters.
In her effort to escape the officers, Milburn reportedly grabbed onto a tree and clung to it, refusing to let go when ordered to by police. Prosecutor Veronique Cantrell-Avloes said the cuts and scratches Milburn would later claim were made by police, were actually caused by her becoming entangled in the tree while fighting off officers. Police photos at the scene reflected tree parts embedded in the skin of her neck.
Attorney Anthony Griffin, representing Milburn, claims in a federal lawsuit against the officers that the girl was outside her house fixing the breaker box when officers bailed out of their van and began roughing her up. After hearing her screams, her parents ran outside and a confrontation ensued between officers and the father.
Testimony in court revealed that the girls mother shouted to her at least three times, "It's the police honey, calm down," but the girl continued fighting the officers.
Milburn also claimed one of the officers hit her in her head with a flashlight. The officers claim her head injury resulted when she ran into the breaker box on the side of the house while running from them.
Until today, only the allegations in Griffin's lawsuit and an interview with Griffin had been published in the media. Although the defense side of the story has been circulated throughout the country, only one newspaper and one Houston television station was in court today to finally hear the entire story.
The jury took the case into deliberation at 11 o'clock this morning and continued into the afteroon, having lunch brought into the deliberation room.
Before handing the case to the jury, Judge Quintanilla instructed them on two possible findings. They could find Milburn guilty of Assault on a Public Servant, in this case a police officer which makes the offense a felony, or they could find her guilty merely of Assault. The lesser finding could be rendered if the jury were convinced Milburn did not know the men were police officers when she ran and fought them. That finding would be a misdemeanor.
Testmony throughout the trial, even by the girl's mother, Emily Milburn, described the neighborhood as a high crime area where there is frequest drug and prostitution activity. A neighbor testified the residents of the neighborhood are so accustomed to seeing the police there, they even recognize the undercover van used by the vice and narcotics officers.
In her opening remarks, prosecutor Ella Anderson told jurors there was no question that Milburn knew the men approaching her were police officers. "All the evidence show it. It's undisputable and undeniable,: she said.
Other testimony revealed that both Milburn's parent knew the officer in charge, Sgt. Gilbert Gomez, and called him by name when they ran into the yard upon hearing their daughters screams.
In Griffin's closing arguments he told jurors that Dymond Milburn was an honor roll student in school and had never had a clash with police. She and her family were supported by more than a dozen friends and fellow church members. She sat at the defense table between her father and mother, Wilfred and Emily Milburn.
After deliberating until after 7 o'clock in the evening, the jury reported to Judge Quintanilla that it was hopelessly deadlocked with one juror holdout.
District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk, in the courtoom when the jury returned, commented the state probably will not retry the case a third time. This was the second trial of the case, the first one being declared a mistrial.
Police officers talks during break in proceedings Attorney Anthony Griffin interviews with Houston TV station
Officer's Attorney Greg Cagle interviews with Houston TV station Dymond Milburn talks with her father, Wilfred Milburn outside courtroom
