Jorg

        At least one of the jurors who heard the case against a Cincinnati police officer charged in the death of Roger Owensby Jr. said she was willing to convict him.

        In a telephone interview Tuesday and with the guarantee that her name not be used, the juror said she believes Cincinnati Police Officer Robert “Blaine” Jorg is responsible for Mr. Owensby's death.

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        “I found the evidence supported the fact that if Jorg had not been there, (Mr. Owensby) would still be alive,” said Juror No. 9, the only African-American woman on the jury. “The way I saw it in my mind and the way the evidence was, I could see easily how he could have choked that guy to death.”

        She decided to talk about the deliberations because she wanted to correct reports that one of the holdouts was a white man.

        Instead, she said, the Oct. 30 deadlock on the involuntary manslaughter charge was divided on racial lines. Ten whites voted to acquit, while two African-Americans voted to convict.

        For two days, Juror No. 9 along with the only other African-American juror, a man whom court officials identified as Juror No. 4, held out despite pressure from other jurors to acquit Officer Jorg of involuntary manslaughter.

        “I told them after the fourth vote to quit asking me because I was not going to change my mind. I was convinced of the evidence. I thought he was guilty. And ... I even signed the guilty verdict for the involuntary manslaughter charge. I told the foreman to write the judge a note telling him that we were deadlocked,” she said.

        Officer Jorg was acquitted by the same jury of a misdemeanor charge of assaulting Mr. Owensby. The jurors agreed there was not sufficient proof that he knowingly assaulted Mr. Owensby.

        On the felony involuntary manslaughter charge, the sticking point was whether Officer Jorg was the sole cause of the death.

        Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said Juror No. 7, a white woman who voted to acquit Officer Jorg, told prosecutors that most of the jurors believed Officer Jorg may have contributed to Mr. Owensby's death, but he was not the sole cause.

        However, Juror No. 9 and Juror No. 4 believed Officer Jorg was solely responsible because he was positioned at Mr. Owensby's head.

        Juror No. 9 said she relied on testimony from police officers at the scene.

        ""Enough of them told enough of the truth, and with the coroner and the actual video of (Officer Jorg) saying what he did, (it) was convincing enough to me that he was guilty.”

        During trial, prosecutors introduced a videotape that captured Officer Jorg explaining to a superior officer that he had Mr. Owensby's head in a “wrap” and that he was trying to hold him down.

        During deliberations, jurors took turns lying on the floor while other jurors, using testimony and other evidence, tried to re-enact what might have happened during the struggle in the parking lot of a Roselawn gas station where Mr. Owensby died.

        “At one point they were all in agreement that Owensby died on the ground,” Juror No. 9 said. “And if he did, then why would Jorg not be the guilty party? ... People wouldn't come to the realization that hitting wasn't the cause of death. The cause of death was asphyxiation.”

        The atmosphere in the jury room was not hostile, merely frustrating, Juror No. 9 said.

        She said she was accused of trying to turn the case into a racial issue, but countered it was a matter of perception rather than race.

        Jurors argued, debated and re-examined evidence.

        “We stated our case seven times to the other jurors and they didn't see it our way,” she said.

        The experience has soured her on jury service.

        “Never have I been so drained and so tired from anything in my life. I prayed for them. I prayed for myself. I prayed for everybody. ... I just couldn't sit there and let (the other jurors) think we were gonna say (Officer Jorg) was not guilty just so they could go home. It just wasn't going to happen with me.”

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