Trial set to begin for day care director
Kevin Hill
Jacqueline Dorothy HadwinMost trials conducted at the 35th District Court last just a day.
That likely won’t be the case next week in Judge Ron Lowe’s courtroom, which has “moved away from some of the rules of thumb” for the high-profile trial of Jacqueline Hadwin, a Westland resident and Plymouth day care director accused of failing to report child abuse.
“We scheduled Monday for jury selection alone because of the potential for people to put things together that they shouldn’t be putting together,” Lowe said. “We anticipate the jury selection, because of the media coverage, is going to take a little bit longer.”
The district court has jurisdiction over misdemeanor cases, most of which are resolved without a trial. Each of the three judges hear an average of a dozen jury trials in a year.
The Hadwin case has garnered more attention than is typical for a trial in which the maximum possible sentence is 93 days in jail or a $500 fine, or both. That’s because the child in question, Allison Newman, ultimately died and her foster mother, Carol Poole, has been charged with first-degree murder.
After Newman died, two former employees at Childtime Learning in Plymouth claimed Hadwin hadn’t reported suspected abuse to Child Protective Services, as required by law.
Lowe said the jury will be instructed to decide whether Hadwin had a “reasonable suspicion” that Newman was being abused last summer.
“Essentially, what did she know at the time she made the decision that she should or should not report?” said Lowe.
Attorneys for Hadwin have said in previous hearings that Poole had explained scratches on Newman as the result of play between the girl and another child at the day care. The lawyers have maintained that Hadwin had no reason to suspect abuse.
The 2-year-old’s death inside Poole’s home in Canton last September should not weigh in the jury’s decision, said Lowe.
“It’s a snapshot, it’s not a movie. We’re trying to keep everybody focused on that.”
Lowe expects it may be more difficult to impanel a jury that has no previous knowledge of the case, though. He said he expects eight of 10 potential jurors summoned to court from the Northvilles, Plymouths and Canton Township will have heard about the case.
Attorneys on both sides have agreed to cast a wider net, selecting from a 90-member jury pool. Most juries at the court are assembled from a field of 35 people. In another rare step, attorneys will screen potential jurors with a written questionnaire.
“The key to the questionnaire is to try to find jurors that are not tainted by the media without tainting them” when they receive the questionnaire, Lowe said.
After the jury is selected, the court has scheduled two days for the trial, though Lowe admitted it has the potential to last longer. The case will have more witnesses than a typical district court trial and attorneys will be given longer than the customary 15 minutes for opening and closing arguments.
“The big unknown is you never know how long a jury will deliberate,” said Lowe.