By Anna Olsen
ALAMEDA, CA – During jury selection here in Alameda County Superior Court Tuesday potential jurors were questioned by the defense about their ability to scrutinize the testimony of a child who was the alleged victim of a sex crime.
Demarco Robert Ayers has entered a plea of not guilty for multiple sex crimes charged on six counts. If convicted, Ayers faces a sentence of up to 16 years in a state prison.
Ayers is accused of committing the sex crimes from 2017 through 2020 with minors, some younger than 10 years of age.
At the beginning of the jury selection, Judge Amy Sekany acknowledged to the potential jurors the serious nature of these crimes.
“This trial involves some pretty personal intimate types of issues sometimes that are difficult to address,” Sekany stated. “At no time are we here to make you speak on something that you aren’t comfortable to speak on, but all we need from you is your best, most honest answer.”
Defense Attorney (first name not available) Romero questioned the potential jurors regarding their ability to act as fair and impartial jurors on this case.
Most notably, he questioned the potential jurors on whether or not they hold bias that would lead them to believe the testimony of a child without much investigation.
Romero asked the jurors whether they “should automatically default to believe someone who has claimed to have been sexually abused” and if there was anyone present “who believes that the testimony should not be scrutinized or examined for indicators of whether or not it’s true or not.”
He also queried potential jurors by asking questions like, “Will all of you assure me that if you are selected to serve and a witness comes into court and accuses my client of doing awful things to her, that even though she is a child you will put her testimony under a microscope and scrutinize it and use your reason and logic to decide that what she is saying is true?”
One juror spoke up and expressed the bias he might have to lead him to believe the testimony of a child.
Judge Sekany closed out the jury selection session with a quick statement before announcing the excused jurors, noting, “Before I excuse anyone, I hope you can see how critical your role is in the process and how very important it is that you are giving your truthful and most honest answers.”
Sekany then excused three jurors.
Jury selection will continue Wednesday.
