they decided that the defendant would plead to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace. he agreed to a $150 fine. that s a lot less than what he could have gotten. he could have gotten a year in jail for the domestic assault charge. hanks, i should add, he s not commented publicly on all of this. the defense attorney said, i was going to vote the way of justice. didn t say which way that was. clever, clever, man. i m voting for conspiracy. chris cuomo, you were a lawyer. i am a lawyer, john. you are a lawyer. no, he wasn t on tv. they often make odd decisions, counterintuitive ones. you want the smartest, most engaged people you can get on the jury, even if they re somebodies. you don t want them to be a distraction, or have an agenda. if you put a celebrity like a tom hanks on a jury, everyone will listen to what tom hanks says no matter what he says. this is not the first time a celebrity has served on a jury. oprah. 2004. i covered oprah winfrey when she
sat on a murder trial in chicago. they voted to convict and then oprah brought the whole jury on the show to talk about it. if oprah is on a jury, it s all about what oprah wants and not what happened in the courtroom. that seemed to be the case. someone just thanked him, to be fair. he didn t weigh in on the merits. some say celebrities can be a distraction. there are people who say they need to be treated just like everybody else. they put their pants on wug lon at a time. up until this moment, they say he was a model juror. he s basically innocent from what we understand of the situation. he ll do anything to encourage people to serve on juries. this defendant is like i m going to watch every movie he ever made. do your civic duty, maybe you ll get lucky and get an autograph. don t do it.