Jury selection begins in Jaska trial

BARSTOW — Judge John Gibson was blunt during jury selection on Tuesday.

“This is going to be a very short day at the beginning of a lengthy trial,” Gibson told a packed courtroom of prospective jurors in the Barstow courtroom.

Jury selection began on Tuesday for the trial of Joyce and Wesley Jaska, an Apple Valley couple accused of embezzling more than a million dollars from Barstow Truck Parts, perjury and tax evasion dating back to 2001. Both the prosecution and the defense expect the trial to last to the end of March, a fact that could make seating a jury difficult.

“It’s a long case, so from that stand point it is going to be difficult,” prosecutor Richard Golden said.

Throughout the day, juror after juror left, excused by Gibson from the case due to hardships. Some said their work would not pay them for jury duty; some were sick or expect to undergo surgery during the five-month time span; others had scheduled vacations. One woman expected to give birth to a child in early February and told Gibson it would be difficult to sit on a jury during that time. Another man said he would be deploying to Iraq soon.

Despite those that were excused, attorneys from both sides said they were surprised at the amount left at the end of the day. Wesley Jaska’s defense attorney, Ben Echols, thought the length of the trial would whittle the field down further.

“It’s going better than I thought,” he said. “Because of the length of the trial, it is going to be difficult.”

Many companies will only pay employees asked to serve on a jury for up to two weeks. In order to give the Jaskas a fair trial, a panel of 15 people — 12 jurors and 3 alternates — must sit for the whole trial. In past cases, if a juror cannot make a day of court, proceedings for that day are either canceled or the juror is dismissed.

The prosecution claims the Jaskas stole money from Barstow Truck Parts, where Joyce was a full-time employee and Wesley a part-time employee. They were arrested for suspicion of the charges in 2002, pleaded not guilty in 2005. The District Attorney’s office filed five counts of grand theft and perjury and tax evasion charges against Joyce and perjury and tax evasion charges against Wesley.

To underscore the length and expected complexity of the trial — and to avoid potential conflicts of interests in the jury pool — attorneys read potential witness lists to the jury. Golden read 32 names, including the owners of Barstow Truck Parts, Jim and Marsha Rajacich. Golden said he expects to call almost every witness named on Tuesday and present thousands of pages of documents.

Joyce Jaska’s attorney, Clifton Peters, read a list of 56 names that included many of the same witnesses Golden read. Echols spared the court another reading of the names, saying he would stipulate to Peters’ list. Echols said he doubted the defense would call every witness named.

A handful of prospective jurors stated they knew some of the witnesses named or the attorneys in the case. Gibson said those issues would be dealt with during a later phase of jury selection. Gibson hopes to pick a jury by the end of November and have opening statements at the beginning of January.

Two people not named as potential witnesses were the Jaskas.

“I have no idea,” Echols said when asked if he thought the Jaskas would testify. “That’s up to them.”

In July 2002, Barstow police officers searched the Jaskas’ Apple Valley home after receiving search warrants based on accusations of embezzlement by Barstow Truck Parts. According to the warrants, Joyce had written larger payroll checks for herself and her husband, Wesley, a Barstow Fire Protection District Fire Captain who also worked at the business part-time, issued fraudulent corporate checks and used company credit cards to finance personal expenses. The Jaskas’ denied the charges and filed a defamation of character suit, which was dropped in 2003.

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