Jury selected in Valley Floor Valuation Trial

By Douglas McDaniel

The Town of Telluride’s Final Valuation Trial for the condemnation of the Valley Floor property began Monday, Feb. 5 in Delta with two whole teams of lawyers and a jury pool of 150-plus people filing into the Delta County Courthouse.
By Tuesday, both sides, the Town represented by Leslie Fields, Esq. and Jack Sperber, Esq., two partners with the Denver law firm of Faegre & Benson; the San Miguel Valley Corporation represented by Darrell Waas, Esq., Mikaela Rivera, Esq., and Patricia Campbell, Esq. of the Denver law firm of Otten, Johnson, Robinson, Neff and Ragonetti; had made their opening statements.
According to the daily update provided to the town by Telluride Town Attorney Kevin Geiger, most potential jurors already completed a pre-trial jury questionnaire addressing employment and residency issues, or whether any they had any knowledge or strongly held opinions about the case.
“Following a number of preliminary matters,” Geiger stated, “potential jurors and counsel for the parties convened in the Courtroom to begin the jury voir dire process, which means ‘to see them say’ or ‘to see them speak.’ Eighteen potential members of
the jury were ‘called’ at random from the audience into the jury box.
“The voir dire process involves the Judge asking potential members of the jury specific questions that are designed to reveal, among other things, the background, education and interests of potential jury members.
“The Court excused a number of potential jurors for a variety of reasons, including medical hardship, financial hardship, advanced knowledge of the issues in the case or strongly held beliefs that would interfere with a juror being impartial and fair. By noon, the Court had assembled a full panel of eighteen potential jurors with no additional Court identified cause for challenge.”
After Monday’s lunch break, the court continued with counsel for the asking questions of potential jurors, whittling the potential jurors from eighteen down to a total of eight “with
each side using five peremptory challenges, which are jury dismissals without stating a reason,” Geiger states.
The jury was impaneled by mid-afternoon Feb. 5, taking an oath of jury service for the
trial’s duration, expected to be three weeks. The jury of six regular members and two
alternate members consists of six females and two males.
The opening statement, made by Waas for the SMVC, who is pitching for keep the final determined value high, while the Town’s opening statement was made by Leslie Fields, who is arguing to keep it within the approximately $25 million the Town is intending to pay. The difference is reportedly anywhere from $45,500 per square acre to $87,000 per acre for the 540-acre parcel.
Day Two, Tuesday, Feb. 6, was the first day the parties actually introduce evidence to the jury with the presentation and examination of witnesses, Geiger states.