Slow as thick ketchup

The long-awaited public corruption trial of Buncombe County’s former sheriff, Bobby Medford, has commenced with a tedious day of jury selection. Seventy potential jurors were called from throughout the Western District with at least one traveling 150 miles to make a court appearance.

Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III, who refers to himself as “Tim,” announced at the outset that he had excused one juror due to recent serious medical issues. After introductory comments and delivering a brief overview of the federal charges, Ellis sent the jury pool to a meeting room to complete multi-page questionnaires and accorded them an hour for the task.

After an ensuing lunch break, the prosecutors and defense attorneys were handed thick folios containing copies of the completed questionnaires while Ellis was presumably reviewing them in chambers. At 2 p.m. the trial resumed. Ten jurors were dismissed out of hand with agreement from all parties, based on their written answers, and the judge commenced one-by-one interviews with the remaining 59.

Ellis questioned each potential juror to clarify answers, to ascertain whether each felt she or he could evaluate the evidence presented in the court room without bias, and, importantly, whether each entertained any strong feelings about gambling or video poker.

At 5:40 p.m. proceedings were concluded for the day with only 25 interviews complete. Jury selection will continue this morning at 9 a.m.