Eyeball falls out in court, mistrial declared
February 07, 2013|By Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Let it now be recorded in the annals of the U.S. justice system: a Philadelphia trial has ended in mistrial by eyeball.
It was the assault trial Commonwealth v. Brunelli, involving an early morning fight outside the New Princeton Tavern in Burholme where one punch cost John Huttick his left eye.
Huttick, 48, was on the witness stand Wednesday, weeping as he told the Common Pleas Court jury about the impact of losing an eye when he literally lost his eye.
Two jurors, seated feet away, gasped and started to rise as if they wanted to leave. Huttick caught the $3,000 prosthetic blue eye and cried out.
"I couldn't believe it just came out," said Huttick after Judge Robert P. Coleman granted the mistrial motion by defense attorney Eileen Hurley.
Coleman set a new trial for March 4 and, with judicial understatement, declared it an "unfortunate, unforeseen incident."
For Huttick, a tall, burly red-haired man who once worked as a bouncer at the New Princeton Tavern, the trial's bizarre end was just another chapter in his life's downslide since the Aug. 18, 2011 fight.
....more at link
http://articles.philly.com/2013-02-07/n ... gilson-eye
That would've freaked me out!