Trial Judge Issues Ground Rules for Haun Jurors

SANTA BARBARA — Diana Haun’s jury gathered informally inside a Santa Barbara courtroom Thursday as Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones laid down a few ground rules.

Don’t read the newspaper, he said. Don’t talk to the attorneys. Don’t listen to radio broadcasts.

Be careful watching TV news reports. And avoid talking to strangers milling around the Ventura courthouse because they could be witnesses, reporters or other people connected to the high-profile Ventura County murder case.

“You know what brought us here,” Jones told the 12 jurors and six alternates seated in the courtroom gallery. “You’re going to have to be very alert to avoid publicity.”

Starting Monday, the men and women selected as Haun’s jurors will be bused daily to Ventura as testimony in the trial gets underway.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to give their opening statements Monday morning, and the first witness could be called by late afternoon.

But before jurors become inundated with 200 exhibits, 200 witnesses, countless facts and various theories, Jones told the panelists he wanted to take some time to deal with a few housekeeping matters, namely transportation, publicity and trial procedure.

Jurors were instructed to meet at 8 a.m. each morning at a Santa Barbara commuter parking lot. An airport bus will pick them up and drive them to the Ventura courthouse each day court is in session.

The bus driver will be warned not to let the radio dial drift to KVEN-AM (1450), Jones added, since the news station has regularly reported developments in the case.

When they reach the courthouse, jurors will be escorted by deputies through a private entrance and led to Jones’ fourth-floor courtroom. They will be taken out the same way each afternoon.

Jurors will be transported back to Santa Barbara between 4:30 and 5 p.m. each evening, the judge said.

After Monday, jurors will be allowed to drive themselves to the Ventura courthouse if they wish. But Jones stressed it was essential the entire jury arrive and be ready to proceed at 9 a.m. each day.

For those who want to take the little bus, which seats 20, Jones added that there may be kinks in the transportation plan that will have to be worked out as the trial proceeds.

“This is all new to me,” he said.

In May, Jones decided a Santa Barbara jury should be imported to Ventura to hear the case against Haun, who is charged with murder, conspiracy and kidnapping for allegedly killing her lover’s wife, Sherri Dally.

Media coverage of the events leading to Haun’s trial made it impossible for her to get a fair and impartial jury in Ventura County, the judge ruled, and a Santa Barbara jury was impaneled.

“This publicity will continue,” Jones told the jury Thursday, holding up four recent newspapers--two from The Times and two from the Ventura County Star--to illustrate his point.

“This is a very clear example of the type of publicity that will occur daily as this case unfolds,” he said, reading headlines aloud as the jurors sat silently and stared.

They must not read or listen to media coverage of the case, he explained, because when deciding Haun’s guilt or innocence they must rely only on information provided in court--not information provided in the press.

It is particularly important to avoid articles in The Times’ Ventura County Edition and the Ventura County Star, Jones told the jurors, because both media organizations will be closely following the trial.