On day one of jury selection in the trial of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, one potential juror grimaced Monday afternoon after the federal judge didn’t announce her number for dismissal – she’d be back Tuesday for another day.
Many of the 255 potential jurors who sat cramped for roughly eight hours at the federal courthouse in Center City appeared unhappy to be there. Roughly half the pool did leave happy when Judge Harvey Bartle called their numbers at the end of the day. Fattah sat calmly with his defense attorneys as both sides reappeared briefly in the afternoon to announce the dismissed jurors.
There was one person in the courtroom who was willingly there.
Ed Heffernan, a retired General Electric accountant from Glenside, came as a spectator to the most prominent political trial in Philadelphia since former state Sen. Vincent Fumo was tried in the same courthouse seven years ago.
Heffernan also saw Fumo’s trial in person, all four months of it.
“That was the pinnacle,” said Heffernan, 82. “Fumo took it as an opportunity to go on Broadway.”
The powerful and wealthy senator was eventually convicted of 137 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and filing false tax returns. He was released from federal prison in 2013.
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Heffernan is among a small handful of enthusiasts who don’t need to watch “Law & Order” to get a taste of courtroom drama: They come to see it live. Several people, almost all retired men, were regulars at the Fumo trial. Heffernan said he recently attended a few days of two other high-profile cases held in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which has a main courthouse in Philadelphia and another in Allentown.
One of those trials was the lawsuit brought by former professional football players against the National Football League in a fight over compensation for concussion-related injuries.
“That became a $1 billion payout,” Heffernan said.
The other was Fattah’s son, Chaka Jr.
“That became uncomfortable to watch at times,” Heffernan said of instances during Chaka Fattah Jr.’s trial that included stretches of Fattah Jr. acting as his own attorney. “I don’t know how the court put up with it.”
Fattah Sr.’s trial is expected to take at least a month, but if the Fumo trial taught Heffernan anything, it’s that there is very little predictability in high-profile cases involving well-known politicians.
“I remember at one point during jury selection, a pregnant woman who must have been five, around five, months pregnant asked the judge if she could be excused because of it,” he said. “But the judge said, ‘Don’t worry. It’ll be over with before you have your child.’ I’m sure she must have been excused at some point.”
Jury selection will continue Tuesday in the ceremonial courtroom on the first floor of the courthouse at 601 Market St.
