I was perusing the current issue of the Texas Prosecutor wherein Jane Starnes of Williamson County has an excellent article on blood evidence. In the course of that article she recounts a trial she had where one of the myriad problems encountered was "a witness with Tourette's Syndrome that became evident for the for the first time when he was on the stand".

Jane, there must be a great story here. How about it?

No, the witness didn't have the kind of Tourette's Syndrome where he shouts obscenities like that chef on Curb Your Enthusiasm (my husband thought maybe he shouted "@%#&*!" at the defense attorney and was disappointed when I said that didn't happen). The guy is one of those socially inept scientist types. When I first met him, I could tell he was really nervous about testifying, so I talked to him for about half a day about his testimony. I got the impression that he had a little bit of a stutter that he worked to overcome, but it wasn't a problem. But I just chalked it up to him being Nerdy Science Guy. But when we were having the hearing outside the presence of the jury on the admissibility of the blood, after he'd been on the stand for a while, he suddenly started to have these spasms and facial contortions and could not get his next word out. I think he made sort of "whoop!" sound, but by that point, I was having sort of a Twilight Zone moment myself, so it's sort of a blur. The more he twitched, the more nervous and self-conscious he became, and that made it even worse. It was like someone was choking him. Thankfully, he got off the stand soon afterward. He then told me that he "had a speech impediment" that came out when he got nervous. "Speech impediment" was definitely a euphemism. Thanks for the warning, Science Guy!

When he got back in front of the jury, he was better, but that was also after we locked him in the room with Dean, the investigator, and made him explain everything to Dean. He was so worried and embarassed that he'd have an episode again in front of the jury, though, that by the end of his cross-exam, he sort of agreed to whatever the defense attorney (The Pitbull) asked him. He just wanted to leave. And so did I at that point.

Note: Please don't write in that we're being insensitive to people with Tourette's Syndrome or politically incorrect. I'm sure it's awful and since we're all silver-tougued, skilled orators, we'd have no idea what it's like. I'd just like some advance notice if you're going to be my witness!

[This message was edited by jane starnes on 12-14-02 at .]