They just can’t let go.
Jury duty is long over. Yet for many of those who served on the panel that deadlocked last year in the emotionally wrenching murder and kidnapping trial of Pedro Hernandez — the former New York City bodega clerk accused of snatching and killing little Etan Patz more than a third of a century ago — the case that ripped them from their lives for nearly four excruciating months is far from over.
Eight jurors and alternates haunted the lower Manhattan courtroom as opening statements were delivered by lawyers on Day 1 of Hernandez’s retrial earlier this month.
Seven who concluded he was guilty watched from the prosecution’s side of the spectators’ gallery as lawyers for the government began taking another crack at nailing the guy who confessed to strangling the child to death, before today’s millennials were even born. The lone juror who voted “not guilty” crept in after his former cohorts arrived, taking a seat in the back of the room behind Hernandez and his defense team.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” a veteran defense lawyer told me.
The obsession with the case displayed by so many ex-participants isn’t normal. Nothing here is.
Shortly after a mistrial was declared in Hernandez’s first trial in May 2015, seven who voted for his guilt — more than half the jurors — sat down in frustration with prosecutors. The juror who voted “not guilty,” meanwhile, started consulting with defense lawyers.
Even routine pretrial hearings have drawn several ex-jurors. And many vow they’ll keep showing up in court as the trial proceeds until they see that justice is achieved — whatever that means to each man and woman.
It happened on May 25, 1979.
Ed Koch was mayor. A subway or bus token cost 50 cents. And the number of murders tallied citywide that year hit 1,733, despite a population that’s smaller than it is today. In comparison, 352 murders were reported in the five boroughs for all of 2015, 333 in 2014.
That was the day 6-year-old Etan Patz, the adorable child with an infectious grin, walked to the school-bus stop in his then-grungy Soho neighborhood alone, for the first time — and was never again seen by those who loved him.
Etan’s face, frozen in time, became the first to be pictured on milk cartons to publicize the plight of missing kids. May 25 was declared National Missing Children’s Day in 1983 by then-President Ronald Reagan.
Everywhere, freaked-out adults started overprotecting precious kids.
A seeming break came in 2012. Hernandez, now 55, who was living in New Jersey, was arrested after he confessed to New York police that he lured Etan to a basement with the promise of a soda, and strangled the child to death.
For 11 jurors, a “guilty” verdict was the logical choice.
“We felt very strongly then, and we feel strongly now, that it’s a very strong case,” former juror Cynthia Cueto told reporters outside the courtroom on the first day of Hernandez’s retrial.
Adam Sirois, the only juror to push for a “not guilty” verdict, might as well have been watching different proceedings.
“It’s very bizarre to me that this case even was brought to trial,” Sirois, 43, who works for a medical research foundation, told me.
“I feel terrible for the Patz family’s loss. But the trial added to their grief.”
Sirois believes that the confession from Hernandez, who has since pleaded not guilty, was the product of a diseased mind. Defense lawyers claim he’s mentally ill, hears voices, and has rock-bottom intelligence.
With no witnesses to a crime and no forensic evidence, Sirois believes authorities have the wrong guy.
A more likely culprit, he said, is José Ramos, 73, a convicted child molester who dated Etan’s baby sitter. He was found civilly liable for Etan’s death in 2004 — but the verdict was overturned by a judge this year. He has never been charged criminally in the case.
Some ex-jurors accuse the stubborn Sirois of seeking attention, which he denies.
It’s unclear how much influence, if any, the impassioned observers have on current jurors, who risk another mistrial if they’re shown to have considered anything outside the evidence.
I may never know with absolute certainty if Pedro Hernandez committed these crimes. But if he’s proven guilty, I hope he’s locked up for the rest of his life.
Like so many people, I am riveted to the case of the lost boy.
Shlong way down for Hillary and Huma
The insatiable pervert who upgraded his sexting handle from Carlos Danger to T Dog may be going down — and taking his nitwit estranged wife, Huma Abedin, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with him.
Just when you thought this election season couldn’t get any weirder, Clinton’s face burst into “Jeopardy” Friday night like a freaked-out phantom, basically saying, “Nothing to see here.”
I don’t know if FBI officials will find any emails relevant to the Clinton probe on the laptop Abedin stupidly shared with her allegedly teen-sexting hub, Anthony Weiner. Late at night, I’ll bet Clinton wonders how she chose her as a key aide — someone she has said she considers to be like a second daughter, a lady who put her in harm’s way of a degenerate.
Days before the election, can Hillary Clinton’s campaign recover from being Weinered?
Israel hate costs troubled Waters
Odious Israel-hater Roger Waters might be taking a hit in the wallet. Good.
The Pink Floyd co-founder, 73, compares the Israeli military’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi atrocities. Because of such rubbish, American Express has pulled out of sponsoring Waters’ 2017 North American concert tour to the tune of up to $4 million, Emily Smith of The Post’s Page Six reported.
AmEx did sponsor a festival this month in which Waters appeared with the Rolling Stones. Awkward! Not only did the Stones defy Waters’ entreaty to boycott Israel in 2014, frontman Mick Jagger rattled off Hebrew phrases from a Tel Aviv stage, including, “Chag Shavuot sameach, Yisrael” (Happy Shavuot, Israel).
What a mensch.
An AmEx spokeswoman said company officials “passed on making a bid” for the tour.
Maybe I’ll keep my account.
Sex really does sell
A 21-year-old virgin working in a Nevada brothel is auctioning off her inaugural hookup — and says she’s hoping for a cool million bucks. Hmm.
Whatever happened to buying a gal dinner before a roll in the hay? Or a lousy drink? I guess I’m just old-fashioned.