Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak interview Mary Chiappetta, a member of Soroptimist International Huntington Beach. Soroptimist International is a global volunteer organization providing women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. Mary became passionate about raising sex trafficking awareness after serving as a juror on a criminal case in Orange County, California.

Mary Chiappetta

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 225 – What Jurors Want to Know.

Production Credits [00:00:07] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:28] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:36] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today, we have a special episode with the perspective from a juror. So, glad to welcome to the show today Mary Chiappetta. She is a member of Soroptimist International, Huntington Beach. Soroptimist International is a global volunteer organization providing women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. Mary chairs the Stop Human Trafficking Committee for SIHB. She became passionate about raising sex trafficking awareness after serving as a juror on a criminal case here in Orange County, California. Mary, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show.

Mary [00:01:22] I’m delighted to be here. Thanks for having me.

Sandie [00:01:25] We’re glad to have, that’s for sure. I’ve often wondered how jurors feel when they’re sitting in a court at a human trafficking trial. And to get to talk to somebody and ask them those questions is really excited about this. We’ve never done a podcast like this before. Mary and I haven’t met until today and in recent emails, so I’m especially happy for this opportunity. So, welcome.

Mary [00:01:54] Thank you.

Sandie [00:01:55] So, we’re going to jump right in with what did you know about human trafficking before you went for jury duty?

Mary [00:02:05] Well, I’m embarrassed to say I knew almost nothing. I mean, when they said that it was going to be a human trafficking case, my mind went to a van with people being smuggled across the border. It went to a sweatshop where people were working for no money. I didn’t think of it as the sex trafficking part at all. I just had absolutely no idea. I was a little bit, you know, nervous because I knew whatever it was, it was not going to be something that I’ve ever been familiar with. So, that was my feeling on it. I just didn’t know anything, which the judge said was a good thing because we’re supposed to come in with a slate full of nothing and just learn as we go. So, I was in good shape.

Sandie [00:02:55] So, you start it out with a blank sheet of paper. That’s good. So, in the process of going through the jury selection, was there any part of that that was particularly interesting for you once you knew what kind of trial it was going to be?

Mary [00:03:13] Right. So, early on, the judge told us it was going to be a sex trafficking trial and the defendant was in the room, and the defendant was a 20-year-old woman. And I just, you know, as confused as I was going in, I was even more confused looking at this young 20-year-old slight tiny woman and thinking she’s the defendant in this case. The judge was a real lighthearted guy, he seemed to me. He knew this was going to be kind of a tough trial to sit through. He said it was probably going to be 10 days long, and that we’re going to hear things that we’ve never heard before. So, in order to make us make us comfortable, he said, “I want you to know that jury box is yours. And, you know, if you need to stand and stretch or you need to wear gym shoes one day. I bring my Halloween candy in, so you know, you’re all alert and awake because I need you fueled for the long term on this effort.” So, the jury probably took them about two days to seat us. We had 12 jurors and three alternates, mostly a funny nine women and three men, which were the jury selection. And you could tell he asked a lot of questions. A lot of people were not that interested in sitting in the human trafficking case. Of course, he didn’t let people off the hook very easily just because you didn’t want to do it, or you were afraid of something that’s no reason. So, took a couple of days and we finally got the jury seated with three alternates.

Sandie [00:04:53] Okay, so what was the mood among the other jurors, because a couple of days gives you time to kind of let it sink in what you’re about to do.

Mary [00:05:02] You know, he was so strict telling us we can’t talk about anything about human trafficking. We can’t Google anything. We can’t look at cases. We can’t talk to each other about human trafficking or anything about the case. We were very obedient jurors. We talked nervously with each other. We spent a lot of time together actually after we were seated, and to this day, we’re still in contact, just sharing human trafficking new. Because you sit together with that kind of situation, a bunch of strangers, you just sort of get camaraderie. But the mood was a little bit, we were all kind of hesitant. What is this going to be about? But we really couldn’t talk about it. It was kind of odd, but that’s how it goes.

Sandie [00:05:49] So, when the trial began, from your perspective, why don’t you start by just summarizing the trial fr...