Thursday, September 23, 2004
The Garden of Peace Memorial
The dedication ceremony for The Garden of Peace Memorial is being held this afternoon in Boston. The memorial will commemorate victims of homicide. Kathleen Mary Dempsey is one of those victims. She was murdered in her Lexington home in 1992 by an unknown attacker. Ms. Dempsey managed to call 911 for help but the call was dismissed as a prank by the dispatcher. Five hours later, another dispatcher reviewed the tape and sent help. By then she had died. I didn't know her but I came to know her story.
In 1997 I served on a jury for a civil case brought by her estranged husband against New England Telephone. The claim was that negligence on the part of the 911 operator had contributed to her death. I didn't know about it at the time but it was a big case that had taken years to come to trial. The lawyers challenged quite a few people from the potential juror pool. Neither side challenged me so I remained.
It was a long and difficult trial. I had served on juries twice before, both relatively minor criminal cases that were over in a day or two. In this case there were a lot of witnesses and hours and hours of testimony. On the jury, we were each allowed to keep notes in a notebook which was surrendered at the end of each day. The notebooks were destroyed after the trial. There were expert witnesses on both sides including Dr. Michael Baden, a well known forensics pathologist. A lot of the testimony was graphic. There were crime scene photos and autopsy reports. And then there was the tape of the 911 call. We had to listen to it over and over. It was so horrible. The fact that no one had been charged with this murder made it even worse. It was a civil case but with much of the testimony and evidence that you'd have in a criminal case. The big difference was that there was no murder defendant.
At the same time that this trial was underway in Middlesex County Courthouse, sentencing in the Louise Woodward case was going on. It was a media circus. The courthouse was surrounded by satellite trucks, worldwide media, people supporting and protesting Woodward, etc. Surreal.
After several days of testimony and several hours of deliberation the jury found that the phone company was negligent but did not award damages because the negligence did not contribute to Ms. Dempsey's death.
It was a tough decision. We argued back and forth. We kept listening to the 911 tape to decide whether we believed that the 911 operator had done her job or not. We reviewed the medical testimony from both sides as to whether she would have survived the attack even if the 911 operator was negligent. Based on the evidence that was presented, we came to a decision that we all felt was consistently supported by the evidence and testimony. Our job was narrowly defined within the law and the judge's instructions. I'm sure that Ms. Dempsey's family was disappointed by the verdict. Obviously we didn't experience the pain felt by her family and friends but we all felt pain during this trial. And it's so sad that's there's no closure. The attacker was never caught; the crime is still unsolved.
As I said, the case was against New England Telephone (Bell Atlantic by the time of the trial, now Verizon). We never heard testimony from the original dispatcher. I learned after the trial that the family had earlier settled a suit against the Town of Lexington for negligence. The dispatcher who had dismissed the call as a prank was clearly negligent.
One positive outcome of this case was that it was catalyst for an enhanced emergency response system in Massachusetts. During the trial one of the issues was that the 911 operator had location information but the dispatcher never asked for it. With the new system, calls are immediately directed to a dispatch center and the dispatcher gets the caller's location directly.
In 1997 I served on a jury for a civil case brought by her estranged husband against New England Telephone. The claim was that negligence on the part of the 911 operator had contributed to her death. I didn't know about it at the time but it was a big case that had taken years to come to trial. The lawyers challenged quite a few people from the potential juror pool. Neither side challenged me so I remained.
It was a long and difficult trial. I had served on juries twice before, both relatively minor criminal cases that were over in a day or two. In this case there were a lot of witnesses and hours and hours of testimony. On the jury, we were each allowed to keep notes in a notebook which was surrendered at the end of each day. The notebooks were destroyed after the trial. There were expert witnesses on both sides including Dr. Michael Baden, a well known forensics pathologist. A lot of the testimony was graphic. There were crime scene photos and autopsy reports. And then there was the tape of the 911 call. We had to listen to it over and over. It was so horrible. The fact that no one had been charged with this murder made it even worse. It was a civil case but with much of the testimony and evidence that you'd have in a criminal case. The big difference was that there was no murder defendant.
At the same time that this trial was underway in Middlesex County Courthouse, sentencing in the Louise Woodward case was going on. It was a media circus. The courthouse was surrounded by satellite trucks, worldwide media, people supporting and protesting Woodward, etc. Surreal.
After several days of testimony and several hours of deliberation the jury found that the phone company was negligent but did not award damages because the negligence did not contribute to Ms. Dempsey's death.
It was a tough decision. We argued back and forth. We kept listening to the 911 tape to decide whether we believed that the 911 operator had done her job or not. We reviewed the medical testimony from both sides as to whether she would have survived the attack even if the 911 operator was negligent. Based on the evidence that was presented, we came to a decision that we all felt was consistently supported by the evidence and testimony. Our job was narrowly defined within the law and the judge's instructions. I'm sure that Ms. Dempsey's family was disappointed by the verdict. Obviously we didn't experience the pain felt by her family and friends but we all felt pain during this trial. And it's so sad that's there's no closure. The attacker was never caught; the crime is still unsolved.
As I said, the case was against New England Telephone (Bell Atlantic by the time of the trial, now Verizon). We never heard testimony from the original dispatcher. I learned after the trial that the family had earlier settled a suit against the Town of Lexington for negligence. The dispatcher who had dismissed the call as a prank was clearly negligent.
One positive outcome of this case was that it was catalyst for an enhanced emergency response system in Massachusetts. During the trial one of the issues was that the 911 operator had location information but the dispatcher never asked for it. With the new system, calls are immediately directed to a dispatch center and the dispatcher gets the caller's location directly.
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