When is enough enough?! We went over to the county courthouse this week to watch one of State Attorney Kirk Zuelch's assistants try to prosecute another case without much credible evidence. It was downright embarrassing. Even Judge Mark Jones was rolling his eyes and scratching his head.
At one time on Tuesday, the judge even sent the jury back to t he jury room while he questioned one of the state's "expert" witnesses, seemingly incredulous that the witness really wasn't the expert that the State Attorney's office had represented her to be.
Last year, Zuelch— apparently frustrated by his office's continuing impotence in prosecuting shady Duval St. T-shirt operators— arrested, instead, emerald jeweler Manuel Marcial, one of the classiest merchants on the street.
Marcial, who, with his family, has owned and operated Emeralds International here for 20 years, is on trial, accused of grand theft. His crime? He refused to give a full refund to a customer who wanted to return a ring he purchased seven years ago . The ring had been damaged— and part of the emerald was missing.
To try to make a case, the state presented as a witness a jewelry appraiser who appraised the ring's value at far less than the $6,000 purchase price. But under cross examination, she admitted that she appraised the ring in its damaged condition and that she had no idea of what the ring might have been worth when it was new.
She also admitted that her appraisal was invalid as evidence in a criminal trial. She said that she had been asked to make an appraisal for insurance purposes— and that the real purpose of the appraisal had been misrepresented to her.
Florida rules require an appraisal for investigation of a theft charge to estimate the value of the item at the time of purchase and in the market where it is sold. The state's witness did not do that.
The state's star witness, Miami appraiser Joseph Tenhagen, who also appraised the broken ring, was scheduled to testify yesterday afternoon, right at press time. But in an interview in the trade magazine Modern Jeweler last year, Tenhagen said that his appraisal— the appraisal the State Attorney used to arrest Marcial in May of last year— was seriously flawed and that the use of it to file criminal charges against Marcial was unauthorized.
"Marcial is no criminal," Tenhagen was quoted assaying in the article.
In initial meetings with Marcial and his attorney last year, Zuelch's staff reportedly took a hardline stand— although they said they would allow Marcial to plead guilty to a lesser charge to avoid a trial.
"But I didn't do anything wrong," Marcial argued.
He was told to take it or leave it.
"I couldn't take the deal," Marcial said. "I couldn't plead guilty to something I didn't do. My family and I have built this business on honesty and integrity. Pleading to a lesser charge would have been the easy way out— but I just couldn't do that!"
But as the start date for the Marcial trial approached, and with his case collapsing piece by piece, State Attorney Zuelch authorized his staff to offer Marcial pre-trial intervention— virtually a probation plea— if he would plead guilty to anything. Marcial also refused to have any part of that.
Marcial has a reputation as one of the most creative designers of emerald jewelry in the country. He should know his business. He started out exploring emerald mines in the Colombian mountains 40 years ago and has specialized in emeralds ever since.
The trial started Monday with jury selection. It continues today in Judge Jones' Courtroom B and is expected to continue at least through Monday.
On tap to testify are Marcial's witnesses, some of the top emerald experts in the country— and Marcial himself.
Stay tuned.