Jury selection continues Tuesday for former, suspended Aurora police officers in Elijah McClain death
Jury selection will continue Tuesday in the trial for one suspended and one former Aurora police officer in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Rodema are the first of five first responders to go on trial.
At the Adams County Courthouse in Brighton, a pool of 250 people received summonses to be whittled down to 12 jurors and two alternates.
Legal analyst Raj Chohan said, "The prosecution is going to want to seat a jury that is racially diverse, a mix of young people with age range and life experiences like the victim in this case."
Elijah McClain was walking home four years ago when police were called about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask.
After asking McClain to stop, the two officers and one other wrestled McClain to the ground using a hold designed to restrict blood flow to the brain.
Paramedics, also charged, were called in and administered a sedative called ketamine. McClain lost consciousness, was hospitalized and died several days later.
Lawyers for the defendants will be carefully scrutinizing the prospective jurors with different criteria.
Chohan noted, "The defense, in a normal criminal case, is going to want a jury that doesn't trust police officers. In this particular case, they want the jury that trusts and respects police officers."
This case has received widespread publicity, and even if potential jurors have heard about it, that doesn't block them from serving on the panel unless their mind is already made up.
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