Justice Delayed

THE JURY IN THE CASE of the ex-cop charged with knocking a cyclist down in Times Square two years ago is apparently still deliberating -- with the fate of Patrick Pogan's next four years resting in its hands. Pogan's very freedom depends on whether the jurors believe the minute-long video of the event in question, or instead feel cyclist Chris Long somehow deserved to be violently body-blocked off his bike for not heeding the cop's order to pull over.

I know how I'd vote, but since I'm not on the jury, the real question is whether enough citizens see it as the abuse of power that it is -- or do they feel this specific "agitator" deserved to be made an example of in some way? Few arrests have more of a visual record than this one, but does it still come down to which lawyer spins the character question better?

Got the all-news station on, but nothing about the case. The News had a short piece in yesterday's paper, the Times nothing since last Friday. The cop's already off the force, having resigned once the video reared its blessed little head, and now faces the additional falsifying evidence charge after trying to cover up what actually happened leading up to Long's arrest.

Just when I was about to sign off, I check the good old New York Post website and sure enough there's news as of 11:46am. Big News. Seems a juror got sick, putting the brakes on deliberations as the tabloid's headline cleverly puns. Now the trial's on hold while Juror No. 9 gets her act together. Why is it always Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine? Now an alternate is en route to the courthouse, while the rest of the jury sits around and waits, and Pogan does the same thing not too far away but far more nervously.

Yet why do I have a sinking feeling he gets off with no jail time, if not scot-free? Experience, perhaps...

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