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"What are your thoughts about the au pair case?"
(asked at Seattle's Best Coffee, Kirkland, on 11-12-97; published in the EJ on 11-16-97)

Tahvia Bridgman, Barista, Bothell

"I think that maybe it was blown out of proportion because she was from another country, and an au pair. ... I've heard so many different things -- it's hard to know what really happened."

Doug Flegel, Realtor, Kirkland

"I read in an editorial in the New York Times that they thought the judge's modification of the sentence was a good thing. Apparently they thought the well-intentioned jury rendered an unjust verdict, And I don't know, but I'm concerned it's because politics -- foreign politics -- and everything else is involved. Well, I'd like to think that justice is untainted."

Vern Thomas, Printer, Kirkland

"She said the baby had prior injuries and the doctors say, "No way, the damage had to be current." There's 50 doctors that say that and they're enraged. She's another O.J. I think the judge is out of his mind. He felt sorry for her. Well, we all feel sorry for her, but he shouldn't have let her off."

Jenny Davidson, Grocery checker, Kirkland

"Well, I agree with the judge overturning the jury and reconsidering his original decision because I just don't fully believe that she did it. I'm just not sure she could do something like that. I guess there wasn't enough evidence to sway me that she did do it. It could possibly have been a previous injury. But if she did it at all, I just don't believe she did it purposefully or maliciously."

Mindy Sitton, Mortgage broker, Kirkland

"I'm not sure which way I really feel about it. Obviously it's sad, but for a lot of reasons, not just for the obvious reasons, the parents and the baby. There's a teenage girl's life here and we don't really know what happened. I think the intent of the law is to administer justice. And I know what the judge did is controversial. But I think he did it in an attempt to find justice."

Lee Doughty, Facilities manager, Kirkland

"She got railroaded. From what I could learn from the public part of the trial, the evidence wasn't there or was pretty ambiguous. The prosecutors had a chance to make a name for themselves and they did."

© 1997 by the Bellevue, WA-based Eastside Journal (née Journal American) newspaper.

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