The Blagojevich Trial Through Normal Eyes (part 2)

Back on the 25th floor, I return before the crowd gathers.

(I didn't realize I couldn't take pics at this point. Go easy on me, Zagel.)

The tv/radio reporters show up around 9:20, all together. The crazies are showing up, too. A lady in a turban tells me that she found an herbal cure for AIDS in 1987. She got her message to Harold Washington, who believed her, and he was poisoned a week later (coincidentally, on my birthday). Another lady in a turban, to no one in particular, expresses her support for Rod. Black women in turbans love Rod Blagojevich. You heard it here first.

Without much fanfare, Rod and Patti step off the elevator arm-in-arm. He wishes us a good morning, the turban ladies are all in a flutter. Without any counsel by their side, they walk down the hall to the door of courtroom #2503. A minute later, P&R walk out of the courtroom; Rod jokes that he’s done for the day. God, I love that guy.

P&R return, the defense council, the prosecution, then media enter the courtroom. The “public” present their yellow cards and are ushered into the public seating area. It’s surprising to find an airy courtroom in what looks like a normal office building. At the same time, it’s a pretty intimate space. Microphones aren’t really necessary.

(Thanks RedEye/Tribune!)

Patti is fixing Rod’s hair. I’m hysterically laughing on the inside. The Hair is not so much a solid, black monolith in person. I thought it would take up a row of seating or touch the black grate ceiling, but, alas, no. Plus, there are subtle medium brown highlights and stuff. Rod isn’t particularly tall, maybe 5’9” or 10”, the hair is big, but not overwhelming. Patti is dainty, maybe 5’7” in heels, with a cute bob. Her crocheted black sweater is just as dainty and her grey skirt is adorable. …What?

I’m sitting in the 3rd row of “pews” on the defense side. Patti is sitting two rows in front of me, maybe eight feet away. Rod sits in front of her, but at the defense table. The bailiff grunts “all rise” and Judge James Zagel enters, followed by the jury. The bailiff is crotchety, the judge totally looks like a judge, but the jury is so… normal looking. They’ve got beards, mullets, big earrings, normal stuff. They’re dressed pretty casually. I try not to look directly at them, like they’re the sun, but they’re the most interesting, mysterious people in the room! One juror looks at ME, nervously.

Judge Zagel makes a quick comment about… oh, I forgot. We get down to business right away. The prosecution, specifically, a lil tinkerbell of a lady named Carrie Hamilton resumes playing a wiretap tape between Blago and, current witness and former chief of staff, John Harris. Unbeknownst to me, Harris is already on the stand. The pictures and sketches don’t do him justice: John Harris is kind of a hottie.

The tapes play through the various speakers set up around the room. It’s pretty hard to understand. Blago, since he was the wiretap-ee, is the louder voice of the two. Rod smirks at Patti, but turns away to follow along in his transcript in a big black binder. Since we started proceedings so quickly, I’m too off-guard to really listen. Good thing Assistant Attorney Hamilton went through the ENTIRE phone call, line-by-line, in painful detail, asking Harris to define almost every phrase spoken by both parties. This is where the !!BORING!! part comes in.