Today the prosecution wrapped up their case against Amy Senser in her hit-and-run trial. All along Mrs. Senser has insisted she thought she had struck a construction barrel with her car instead of a human being. The state is attempting to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she must have known she had hit someone instead of something. To do that...
Today two of the three key witnesses were teenagers. Because they were minors the judge instructed all of courtroom sketch artists to not sketch them. At all. We asked if we could just draw outlines or even genderless mannequin-like "ghost" shapes and even that request was denied. The judge was very nice about it but he wasn't taking any chances....
Today was the first day of testimony for one of the star witnesses, ex-NFL player and local celebrity Joe Senser, who's wife is on trial for the hit-and-run The TV station asked me not to come in until 11am today. Even though I showed up early the courtroom was packed and every seat taken. I had to draw out in the...
Today was Day 2 of the Amy Senser hit-and-run trial, and once again I was hired by local station KSTP-5 to do some courtroom sketches. Several witnesses took the stand so I was drawing fast and furious. Courtroom sketching is always a balancing act. Do I focus on quantity or quality? A couple of really good sketches or several hurried...
A couple of times a year I'm hired by local TV station KSTP-5 to do courtroom sketches for trials that are deemed "big news" to Minnesotans, or on rare occasions, even nationally. Today was the start of a hit-and-run homicide trial with ties to a local celebrity. The defendant, Amy Senser, is the wife of Joe Senser, a former Minnesota Viking...
Yesterday I was at the federal courthouse in St. Paul where lawyers from the NFL and the Players Union were arguing over the current breakdown of salary negotiations. I'm not a sports fan so I don't really have a dog in this fight. All I know is that whenever there's large amounts of money at stake (in this case billions...
