The Nunez Trial – Courtside with Colleen – Part 2

So, before I go any further in my story… I want to share that I work 3 days a week and it’s near uptown Kingston (where the courthouse is). Almost every day, my husband and I meet for lunch at a an awesome coffee house located directly across from the courthouse in which this trial took place.

On any given day… sitting in this coffee shop…..you can see judges, lawyers, defendants, jurors, investigators, and family members coming and going from this shop…For good reason… It’s good coffee !!!!

So, needless to say, we saw all the players in this particular case coming and going almost every day. Even if they did not come into the coffee shop, you could see them all coming and going from the courthouse through the huge glass window of this shop…

So, when the jury selection began…I started to follow the live tweets from our local newspaper reporter. It took a few days to choose the jury.

Also, I did some research on one of the Defense Lawyers, Gerald Shargel, who was representing Dr. Nunez… Holy …GOOD lawyer.. When I researched other clients who Gerald Shargel has represented I discovered this ….. He represented Mob Boss John Gotti (and got him acquitted), actress Amanda Bynes, the person who tried to extort money from David Letterman, John Gotti’s son also named John, Sammy the Bull Gravano, and many more.. Mr. Shargel is widely regarded as one of the best lawyers in America. In many of these cases, he was able to get acquittals.

So the day the Opening Arguments took place for this trial  my  husband, myself, and 2 of my best friends showed up to the Ulster County Courthouse.

This was my first time EVER going into a courtroom for a trial. I barely knew what door to enter. Everyone has to go through security . Every day, that damn belt buckle beeped and I had to get the wand over me … LOL… I quickly learned where to find the elevator and staircase and what floor I needed to be on.

We sat there in the courtroom for an hour before the jury got called in. I guess they were running late that day.An added note.. I had to learn courtroom etiquette pretty quickly.” All rise”, don’t talk until Judge dismisses himself, etc…

I look around at the people starting to pile into the courtroom. It filled quickly and I got the impression that his courtroom doesn’t usually see this many people in the “audience” section.

I quickly learned the media sat together in one area.. The far right if facing the front. I recognized a few faces right away…. The woman who has been doing the live twitter feeds from the Daily Freeman (our local news reporter) named Patricia. I recognized from her twitter profile picture. I also recognized a man I have seen on television a lot named Richard Schlessinger from the tv show “48 Hours”… I also learned that there was a representative from “Dateline NBC “ and from “The New Yorker”… In addition to several other local news reporting agencies.

I was approached by a local reporter because I think he thought I was a Kolman family member. I went on to explain I am just a citizen here to follow the trial.

I see the prosecution lawyers walk in. Two very professional and attractive women. They had the look. Black suits and fresh updated haircuts… They looked ready to go…

Then, I see Dr. Nunez walk in. The media camera was clicking away…The room all quiet except for click, click, click, click….

His lawyers were with him.

An added note, there was a huge television camera with a ton of wires at the entry to the courtroom. At one point, the commissioner of Jurors had to come in and ask them to scoot that thing more out of the way and make the wires safer…

I listened carefully to the prosecution and defense opening arguments.

From memory, I would say the thing that stood out most from those arguments were some things said by Mary Ellen Albanese .. the prosecution lawyer.

She began with this word… “Obsession”….

When you start a trial with that word… A person wants to listen….

Also, she explained how Tom Kolman was positioned when his body was found. That is something I did not know or hear until this day…. Tom was positioned back all the way in his car seat. His pants were unbuttoned, unzipped, and his belt was opened with the straps hanging wide open. This was all new to me… Wow !!! What the heck to you make of that?

Oh… One other surprise that was stated (a surprise to me)… Tom Kolman’s phone. It was found in the console next to Tom’s body.  It did not have a lock or code to get into it. The investigators discovered that all text messages between him and Dr. Nunez were deleted off of Tom’s phone (implying the person who killed Tom did this during the crime).

When I heard these bits of information, it was obvious to me why the investigators had to take a closer look at this case.

The defense lawyer, Gerald Shargel went next in his opening argument. He explained that there were zero prints or dna tracing this crime back to Dr. Nunez. He explained that it’s not their job to find the person who actually did this, but to prove that his client did not do it. He was likable.  He was honest in the fact  that he even thought some of the letters/emails that will be presented into evidence (written by his client) were definitely over the top…

Regarding the jury… I noticed at least 3 of the jurors looked very young.. Like in their 20’s type of young. Just an observation.

As I looked around the courtroom that day, I would recognize faces of people that I would continue to see sitting there each day I attended in the future. Local faces of people who were there for their own reasons.

Stay tuned… I’ll continue my story.