Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Jury System Works Again: Federal Jury Vindicates EPD Officer Accused of Racial Profiling

by MIKE ARNOLD, Eugene, Oregon -- Karen McCowan at the Register-Guard reported this morning that Eugene Police Ofc. Wayne Dorman was vindicated by a federal jury after an hour of deliberations regarding allegations of racial profiling.

This is another example of the civil justice system working properly. Folks can have a disagreement, in this example over race. If they cannot resolve it, they have a jury figure it out. Don't be conned by the insurance industry and special interests who claim that the the jury system is broken.

The plaintiff chose federal court over state court, which gave him a jury pool from as far south as the southern Oregon coast, as far north as Salem, and as far east as Bend. He chose this over a Lane County jury, which would have had a substantially higher percentage of potential jurors from the city of Eugene.

Consequently, this case wasn't simply the community of Eugene or Lane County deciding this dispute. It was a fair jury from a huge geographic section of the state who heard the facts and made their decision. Case closed.

by C. Michael Arnold,
Attorney at Law,
Eugene, Oregon
Arnold Law Office, LLC