Jury Duty

Jury duty was fun but after two days of jury selection they dismissed me.

At first, I did not want to be a juror but after I settled into the number one seat in the juror's box I started to get into the case.

I guess the prosecutor did not like the fact that in non-violent crimes I believe, like my Step-Dad. The belief is: “It is better to let 10 guilty people go free then convict one innocent person.”

He was a wonderful man and an excellent attorney!

Here is a 2006 reprint of a story about my Step-Father, Joel A. Scelsi, Esquire, from the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, NY:

Saturday March 25, 2006
NEWS
Lawyer remembered for helping others, Joel A. Scelsi, Esquire

By William Moyer Press & Sun-Bulletin
At one time, Joel A. Scelsi would have been affectionately called a small-town lawyer, his family remembered Friday.

From an office on Main Street in Endwell, Mr. Scelsi handled all things legal - from family court matters to real estate transactions and criminal defense at court trials.

Mr. Scelsi, 82, died Thursday at his Endwell home after a battle with Parkinson's disease. He had been married for 39 years to his wife, Stella.

"He did a lot of pro-bono work; he just helped a lot of people," said his daughter, Sylvana Dodd of Endwell. "Growing up, people would tell me if you ever got in trouble, go to Joel Scelsi and he'll help you. That was a wonderful part of his life."

One of his highest-profile cases involved the defense of an amateur boxer who was tried in Tioga County Court on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Scelsi was a defense attorney for William L. Sosenko, then 22 of Little Meadows, Pa., who was tried in connection with the death of Keith A. Baron, then 30 of Apalachin. Baron was punched outside an Apalachin tavern on March 7, 1992, fell to the pavement, hit his head and died four days later, leaving a pregnant wife who gave birth to a son 22 days after the father's death.

Sosenko's trial in November 1992 ended in a mistrial after a juror got sick. A second trial in January 1993 ended with a deadlocked jury. A state appeals court upheld a decision to dismiss the felony charge against Sosenko.

In March 1975, Mr. Scelsi represented a promoter who wanted Helen Reddy, who recorded the song I Am Woman, to come to Broome County for a pretrial examination after the pop singer was accused of skipping out on a concert at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. The matter was eventually settled out of court, according to a newspaper report.

John E. Cheevers, former Town of Union supervisor and chief executive of Cheevers, Hand and Angeline investments in Endicott, knew Mr. Scelsi for many years from the lawyer's interest in community affairs.

"He was always interested in what was going on in the town; he always wanted what was good for the town," Cheevers said. "He was a classy guy. He did a lot of things for a lot of people, but didn't stand up and take credit for it."

Mr. Scelsi was a graduate of Union-Endicott High School, Colgate University and Cornell University law school. Among his community activities was a long tenure on the Vestal school board, winning a two-year term in May 1959 as a write-in candidate.

"His family came first and then his law practice, which was like an extended family," Dodd said. "He loved gardening. He loved cars. He had a Maserati, a Jaguar, a vintage Corvette and an old Cadillac that we called the pickle, because it was green."

Back to Work & Jury duty

We got back to the USA and went right to work fixing air conditioning systems. I love to work as it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Daeng had trouble with jet-lag for over a week but after three weeks she is back in the swing of things.

Today I'm sitting in the Jury Room as a juror. I have been sitting in the same seat for seven hours except for restroom breaks. Another hour or two and we should be dismissed.

Although I am not real crazy about being a juror if makes me real happy to be an American.

A trial with a jury of our piers is not something that is available in most countries.

Although we have things like the "Well from Hell" in the Gulf of Mexico and a recession causing trouble with all our livelihoods, life is still pretty good here in the old USA.

We Made it to California 05/31/2010

We made it to our home in California. It was a good trip without any unusual events. We do have a bad case of jet-lag but other than that we are in good shape.

My sister, Diane, had cleaned our house and put some food in the refrigerator so all we have to do is turn on the water heater, take showers, have a little to eat and head for bed.

Love to all!

Bangkok 05/30/2010 Looks like the Bronx on Sunday Morning

We made it from the Myanmar (Burma) Border to Bangkok yesterday.

Bangkok looks like the Bronx on a Sunday morning. There are very few tourists and the shops and store have everything on sale with big discounts so they can pay the rent.

We flew in, had something to eat, showered and I slept for almost 16 hours. Daeng slept for about 14 hours, too. We were beat from finishing all the work on the new place in Mae Sai.

Daeng is now out shopping and taking some pictures of what the "Red Shirts" did to this area. They sure did help out with the economy. I'm not judging, I'm just saying.

Our plan is to rest as we make the long trip to California tomorrow. It is supposed to be over 100 degrees in LA this coming week.

Love to all, may your toilets never run over and stay cool.

Mae Sai 05/29/2010 We're done for this trip

We have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Kick, fall down, get up, kick, fall down, get up, kick, fall down, get up, kick, fall down, get up, kick......................

We told the guys if they didn't finish the work yesterday they would not be paid until we return in September. You guess correctly, they finished all the work except for the dead bolt on the metal roof door. They said they would return at 8:00 this morning to put it in.

All the major work is complete and everything works good. We had a couple of hours of hard rain yesterday afternoon so we got to test the new piping system. Everything drains correctly.

I was a little worried as I watched them pour the concrete but it turned out very nice. I also had some concern about the way they hung the Teak door in the downstairs room off the kitchen. They deep mortised the four door hinges in the door but surface mounted them in the Teak door jams.

They explained that because the jams are sent in concrete they can not be replaced but the door can and the only thing that would show, if you removed the hinges, would be the screw holes. They can be filled. The door looks good.

The only thing that was wrong is I set the eight (8") clean out up to grade beside the building. I did not glue it in so if a car or truck ran over the top it would just push down and not break the pipe. Well, I stepped on it before the concrete was completely dry and it went down a few inches.

I removed the cap and raised it up again. This time we put a big planter over the top so no one will drive or walk on it.

We are going to give Daeng's brother, Tun a set of keys to the place this morning and walk him through everything that we feel he should know.

We have a car picking us up at 11:30 AM, talking us to the Chiang Rai airport about 50 Km south. Our Air Asia plane leaves for Bangkok at 1:35 PM. It is about an hour and ten minute flight.

We'll hop in a taxi and stay in a nice little guest house in downtown Bangkok. We'll rest up for two nights, do a little shopping and head to California on Monday night. We leave Bangkok at about 5:00 PM and arrive in LA two hours later. That always blows my mind.

According to the weather reports on the Internet if will be 100 degrees in LA this coming week. I'm sure our telephones will be ringing with people saying: "Please help us, it's hot."

Mae Sai 05/23-2010 8" Pipe

We are beat but relieved that the 8" drain line to the street drain is in the ground, tested and back filled with sand.

Everything went pretty good with the new crew except one of the workers was hurt badly yesterday. What happened is he was cutting some rebar with a 4" grinder using a thin cut off blade but no guard on the grinder. You guessed it, the blade broke and a piece went into his eye.

The part that pissed me off is everyone just kind of hung around not taking any action to get him to a hospital. I called Daeng, who was at the afternoon market. She rushed home and demanded that they take him to the hospital, right now!

The good news is we were told today that his eye will be okay. We were relieved to hear that as when I looked it was cut pretty deep into the eye lid.

We both are happy that this 8" pipe project in done. All we have to do is some concrete work and a few odds and ends and we can leave Mae Sai for three months.

I'm going to turn in early tonight as this 68 year old body is tired from working with the big pipe.

Tomorrow, it's electrical, finish kitchen and replace one broken tile in bathroom. Then back roof repair, eves trough replacement and repair roof drain pipe.

Mae Sai 05/20/2010 Moving right along...

Things are moving right along.

The Thailand Army went into the UDD, Red Shirts, barricaded area and the demonstration is over. I don't what to get political as I'm an invited guest in this country but................ Call me at 1-714-586-9569, leave me a message and I'll call you back with my feelings on the subject.


The new re-modeling guys finished the bathroom this afternoon. YEA! We have already tested the fixtures but will wait until tomorrow to run the shower to be sure the grout is set.


For the 8" drain piping, we arranged to have the concrete broken, hauled away, the ditch dug and back filled after we install the pipe. The cost was a little high at 13,500 THB ($422 USD) but we needed to do it fast. They have worked two days and already had to replace the armature in the small jack hammer they are using. They are about half way.


We priced the impact hammer they are using and it cost 22,000 THB new. That means we are getting the breaking, digging, hauling and back filling of ditch for half the price of the jack hammer.


Tomorrow, the electrician will wire up the lights and switches for the bathroom and put a couple of plugs in for refrigerator and upstairs hallway.


The tile guy will start finishing the kitchen by setting the sink and plastering the inside of the tile cabinets. They are also going to change a couple of tile that the other tile guy put in upside down.


We think everything will work out alright so we can return to the USA in 11 days.

Remodeling is almost as fun as camping.