Mock Trial Blog Response Part 1

The first trial that occured in Issue's class was about a guy named David, who was accused of "raping" his girlfriend. This seemed like it was more of scheme for revenge, because the only direct evidence of anything relevant to the trial case was the note David had on has dresser from his class partner at school, who happened to be a girl.Other than that, there was no direct evidence that any "rape" occured, especially if it was stated that his girlfriend made gesters that would imply the want for sex, not the escape from it. I was very pleased to participate as a juror for this mock trial case, because I could tell from the start, the group arguing that there was rape had very little of anything to prove their point, which wasn't their fault.
    As for the case that I particpated as a memeber of the defense for, regarding lawyer Elyse Roberts, I couldn't help but feel that the case could have gone either way. In class, my group "won" the case because we did a better job arguing for our side, but the truth of the matter is that Elyse Roberts was doing worse on her works at the Bureau that she worked at, whether it was because of Kevin Murphy or not. However, the sexual overtones that Kevin made in his jokes were not just directed towards Elyse, but to many other members of the bureau. It could be said that Kevin Murphy went too far with his jokes, because although he had the good intention of making Elyse feel more comfortable, there was nothing done to stop him from annoying Elyse to a point where she struggled to do even close to well. I still feel that the bureau avoided making a big deal out of Elyse Roberts for two reasons: 1: She was new; and 2: The bureau didn't want to get into legal issues. This was a reasonable case of sexual harassment, and of course it was not intended to be that way by Kevin Murphy, but not locking the door to the office they shared while he was changing clothes, and making jokes that she was clearly uncomfortable with was not really appropriate at the workplace, and again: nothing was done about it soon enough.
At the same time, it's very hard to prove that a friendly invite to a party was part of the sexual harassment, because I still do not consider that Kevin was asking Elyse out at all. If the other male workers asked the female workers to this party that was referenced in the witness statements, then it would have been a more obvious example of sexual harassment.