An Editorial...Galletly Trial Analysis

Why did the jury in the bid-splitting trial of Grove City Manager Bill Galletly find him guilty in one case, innocent in another?
Maybe you care or maybe you don't, but if the appeals process fails him, Galletly's career as a city manager, anywhere, is over. The jury probably was not aware of that.
Basically it comes down to this:
1. Prosecutor Ben Loring got an "A" and defense attorney Jack Gordon, Jr. got a "C."
Loring's strategy was simple: Put the jury to sleep for the first two days, (one did on day two), referring to piles of paper that the jury never saw, and then call in his stealth witness, Tisha Carroll, the feisty CPA who looked Gordon right in the eyeballs and didn't back down. She presented some simple spreadsheets summarizing the expenditures for the White Building project and the City Hall Remodel Project, in a power point presentation that the jury could see. Gordon had nothing.
2. The issue of the City Hall Remodel Project was a no- brainer. Assistant City Manager Debbie Mavity made it clear that the ADA Doors were not part of the original project and were added after the Mayor broke her ankle and couldn't get to work. This Count might have been a Trojan Horse put up by the D.A.'s office, simply to prep the jury for the more complicated White Building Count.
3. Witnesses from City Hall were basically not effective in helping Galletly. One even volunteered information which hurt his case. Mavity saved the day on the City Hall project.
4. The key defense witness, a Claremore lawyer who had served as city attorney for 24 years, was not permitted by Judge Haney to offer expert witness testimony, a devastating blow to the defense.
5. In a Bench Trial, you pretty much know what you are going to get, so the defense asked for a Jury Trial, which is a crapshoot. This time the dice rolled badly. One juror spent most of the trial looking at the clock on the rear wall; most doodled in their notebooks. They never saw most of the exhibits entered into evidence. By the time Gordon presented his closing arguments they were squirming in their seats ready to bolt for the door, their minds made up. You knew it was over when they begin smiling at Loring.
6. Gordon's folksy manner and soft voice may have turned the jury off…they may have felt they were being talked down to. No one likes to strain his ears to hear what is being said.
7. Galletly did not testify in his own defense. Maybe this would have opened up other questions from the Prosecutor that would have worked to his disfavor, but some juries like to see the defendant testify in his own behalf, and if not, they wonder why.
8. The jury didn't understand the difference between contracts and projects. No contract was over $25,000 but the project, the sum total of the contracts in the White Building matter, was. The key defense witness that was not allowed to testify could have cleared this up.
9. The Delaware County Courthouse. Gordon has lost just about every motion filed since Day One. We continue to wonder why the defense did not ask for a change of venue to another county.
So we await the appeals process, supposedly put on a fast track. Meanwhile, Galletly just wants to finish out his career and retire in 16 months, ending the bumpy ride he has endured since coming to Grove. But the boo-birds want him gone, with the council members that support him, taking away the ballot box from the citizens of Grove.
Stay tuned. The bumpy ride ain't over and the Fat Lady has not yet sung.