As King City cops prepare to go to trial, judge weighs whether to share a jury or split them up.

If you've ever sat in a courtroom hoping to squirm your way out of jury duty, you know how long and tedious the process of jury selection can be.

In the case of two members of the King City police force preparing to go to trial later this year, court officials expect that process to be particularly time-consuming thanks in part to the considerable media attention the case has received since February 2014, when a third of KCPD was arrested on various charges. 

At issue in Monterey County Superior Court now is a decision on a technical matter, but one that defense attorneys and prosecutors strongly disagree on: Should there be two separate trials for Sgt. Bobby Carrillo and former acting chief Bruce Miller, or should the two go to trial simultaneously?

Attorneys Juliet Peck and Mike Lawrence are representing Miller; attorney Susan Chapman is representing Carrillo; and Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers spoke on behalf of the prosecution on Friday in court. 

Lawrence, Peck and Chapman were there to ask Judge Julie Culver to split the two defendants apart, giving them separate trials. 

"The evidence against Mr. Miller is far weaker than the evidence against the co-defendant [Carrillo]," Lawrence said.

He called guilt by association "the real danger that exists in this case," should his client, Miller, be tried alongside Carrillo. 

They're asking Culver to determine that each defendant should have a separate trial. 

Somers proposes something different: One trial, but two separate juries serving simultaneously. It's a practice that has been used elsewhere in California, but not in Monterey County. 

"The idea of using two juries is not novel, it's not new," he said. 

Somers has been scouting courthouse spaces in the county, and said that traffic court in Marina offers a jury box big enough to fit two juries. When evidence is presented that applies to both Miller and Carrillo, both juries would be seated; when evidence is presented specific to one man only, one jury would be escorted out to a waiting room.

Somers is trying to prove Carrillo and Miller are linked in a car-towing scheme, in which Carrillo targeted under-privileged immigrant drivers, towed their cars to Miller's brother's tow pound, and then kept some of the cars for himself. 

At one point, Miller himself received a 1995 Ford Maxima with close to 200,000 miles on it, which Somers argued was a bribe, and evidence that Miller was complicit in the scheme. 

"I'm sure Bruce Miller would chose not to be associated with Bobby Carrillo, but he chose to enter into a scheme with him," Somers said. 

In an unusually intense spat for a courtroom, Lawrence accused Somers of being "reckless," and misstating the facts: Miller had indeed continued in efforts to discipline Carrillo, he said, proving the Maxima wasn't really a bribe. 

Culver is expected to rule on the matter of how to select juries later this month. She has three choices: Hold two entirely separate trials as the defense requested, select two juries to serve simultaneously as the DA requested, or proceed with one jury for both men—the most efficient option as far as court resources, but potentially damaging the right to a fair trial.  

The trio of defense attorneys is also exploring the possibility of filing motions to move the trial (or trials) out of Monterey County, where they're less likely to encounter jurors who have been following the case in the news, possibly developing a bias about the case.