Women’s tooth knocked-out, fist thrower claims self-defense
My first time in court was a couple years ago. I’d been selected for jury duty. Unsure what to expect, I was both nervous and excited. Not everyone selected for jury duty ends up serving on the actual jury, however I did. The process for selecting the final candidates was interesting, and sort of reminded me how teams are chosen in elementary P.E. class. Each team captain, in this case the lawyers, took turns asking questions and vetting out the pool of players.
As I entered the court room, this time as an observer, I was not sure what to expect. I had no prior details about the case I would be watching. The trial was set to start after lunch at 1:30 p.m. I was the first one in the court room and had expected it to look more modern. The old pews and the tired burgundy, nautical looking rope between the stanchions looked official. But, I wondered why everything was so old. Government spends money on all kinds of things, but clearly modernizing the Black Hawk County Courthouse was not on that list.
Next, Misty Spooner, and her mother walked in and were seated. Ms. Spooner took her seat in the defendant’s chair, and her mother sat down on the same pew as me, but she was on the other side of the court room. I was just taking everything in and unsure what to expect when Missy said to me, “I seen you in court before. You work here, right?” I was completely caught off guard and responded with, “No, I am just here observing for a class assignment.” Thankfully, the extreme awkwardness that followed did not last long, because others began rolling into the court room as well.
The prosecuting attorney, Ryan Decker, arrived and spent a few minutes checking his audio/visual equipment. I moved over a few feet, closer to Misty Spooner’s mom, so that I’d be able to see what Mr. Decker would be presenting. This was another showing of the court room’s non-modern design features. Next Ms. Spooner’s lawyer, Jared Knapp, arrived. This arrival was followed by the court assistant, Judge Brook Jacobson, and the court reporter. Judge Jacobson asked us all in attendance to stand while the jury made their way in. Knowing nothing about the case, but seeing the jury was made up of mostly women, I assumed the plaintiff was going to be a woman.
Judge Brook Jacobson allowed us to be seated and the prosecution laid out in specific detail what the case was about. The plaintiff turned out to be the State of Iowa. After detailing the events that led up to the need for the trail, the prosecution called the first witness, Brittanie Thompson. Ms. Thompson recounted the same events mentioned by Mr. Decker, attorney for the state who was prosecuting Mrs. Spooner.
August 14th, 2016, was Ms. Thompson’s friend Jesse Luck’s birthday. A group of friends got together that day for a floating trip to celebrate (also known as going tubing). The trip started in early afternoon and lasted two to three hours. During this time, many alcoholic beverages were drank by everyone. When asked by Mr. Decker how many beers she has had in that span of time, Ms. Thompson estimated, “six or seven bud or busch lights.” I noticed the judge was surprised by this answer. He sort of widened his eyes and looked to the court attendant almost as if to be checking her reaction to Ms. Thompson’s statement.
After tubing, the group of partiers stopped by the liquor store to get more beer before heading over to Mr. Luck’s home to continue celebrating. The entire story of events involves several people in varying levels of relationship to one another, but I will attempt to give the gist. Brittanie Thompson was well intoxicated, so she does not recall everything that happened, but a couple hours after getting to Mr. Luck’s house, a few more people joined the party. One of them was the defendant, Ms. Spooner, along with her one female and two male friends. For reasons unknown to anyone, Mr. Luck’s brother Luke charged at one of the newly arrived men. Then, both of the male newcomers started to attack Luke. In an effort to calm the situation, Jesse Luck ran inside to retrieve some bear spray.
Meanwhile, Ms. Thompson ran to check on Luke who was slumped over near the house in what looked like convulsions. Jesse Luck then deployed the bear spray on all of his party guests in attempt to break-up the fights. At this point, Ms. Thompson blacked out for a bit. When she can to, she woke to Ms. Spooner straddling and punching her in the face. The attack stopped once Ms. Thompson’s boyfriend came over and with concern yelled, “Stop. Her tooth is out. Get off her, ” Austin Bowman found Ms. Thompson’s tooth and pushed it back into Ms. Thompson’s mouth as far as he could. Ms. Thompson told the court, “He actually grabbed my tooth and shoved it back in my mouth, up in my gum, as far as it would go.”
There was further testimony on medical and dental visitations Ms. Thompson had been on as a result of her injuries. All of this information was presented by the first witness and the state’s prosecuting attorney. I was not around to hear further testimony, but am still incredibly interested in discovering what the defendant has to say about all of it. Ms. Spooner was obviously in non-agreement with some of the things presented by Ms. Thompson. She shook here head back and forth during some of the witness’s testimony.
I worried for Ms. Spooner. To me, her laywer just didn’t seem to have it together like the prosecution’s. Ms. Thompson’s lawyer wore an old, tired suit. His name was Jared Knapp, and frankly, he resembled a person who may have just awoken from a nap. He pulled out his brown expandable folder with “Misty Spooner” written in marker on the side. It seemed so very impersonal to have a folder labeled like that. I mean, to me, this gave the impression Mr. Knapp had hundreds of other cases just like this he was working on, and each one is only a number (and not a giant unique name on the side).
My attention was strongly focused on Mr. Knapp. I could not help but judge the book by the cover. In addition to the other physical quirks, this guy had a squeaky chair during the trial, and he seemed to be oblivious of this. In fact, on one occasion, I even witnessed Mr. Knapp even pick what seemed to be a very serious wedgie. I certainly was not expecting that. The courtroom overall was just not as near as formal as I thought it would be. Everything is very conversational and the room itself is not fancy in the slightest way.
It was still exciting and interesting to see our nations’s democratic process in real time. Our country is fortunate in that if we feel something is unjust, we, as Americans, get to make a case for change or justice. The case observed above was very different from the trial I served as a juror on. That was a civil matter meaning the two sides could not compromise on. This trail evolved personal injury and assault charges. Both are very important to be reviewed and have a resolution made. I can’t help but wonder how Ms. Spooner’s lawyer did since he did not look the part of a stereotypical lawyer with a winning record.
Title: ST VS SPOONER, MISTY K
Case: 01071 SRCR215064 (BLACK HAWK)
Journalism & Law 