Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev returned to court Thursday for the first time since he was arraigned in July 2013.
Security was tight at the federal courthouse in Boston for the final pretrial conference before his trial begins next month.
Tsarnaev, 21, was led into the courtroom by U.S. marshals. He was wearing a black sweater and grey trousers and had a scruffy beard and a mop top hairstyle similar to the one seen in his mug shot. He smiled to his attorneys and one patted him on the arm.
The courtroom was packed with FBI agents, police who worked on the case and more than a dozen survivors and family members.
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 2013 marathon. Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted.
At his last court appearance nearly 1 1/2 years ago, Tsarnaev still bore signs of the bloody standoff with police that led to his capture and the death of his older brother, Tamerlan. His left arm was in a cast and his face was swollen. He appeared to have a jaw injury.
Thursday’s court hearing was the last one scheduled before jury selection begins Jan. 5. The trial is expected to last several months, and seating a jury alone could take several weeks to a month.
Judge George O’Toole Jr. questioned Tsarnaev about whether he had waived his right to appear at previous hearings. Tsarnaev answered in a clear voice: “Yes, sir.”
![AP Photo/Elise Amendola]()
AP Photo/Elise AmendolaWhen I walk into the room and Polkaroo waves at me with his two big hands high in the air, the child in me gasps.
The seven-foot-tall green creature, wearing what appears to be a yellow dress with polka dots, outstretches his arms to me. I rush into them for a hearty hug.
“Polkaroo!” He says in his high-pitched, singsong voice.
Kara Harun, a TVOKids host, understands the hugging. “That’s what kids want to do,” she says. “[Their reaction is] instantly visceral — it’s like, ‘Polkaroo!!!’ — because Polkaroo has been such an icon in Ontario.”
Polkaroo first appeared on the long-running TVO show <em>Polka Dot Door</em>, which started in the ’70s. TVO is celebrating its 40th anniversary at tomorrow’s The Word on the Street festival at Queen’s Park.
“I grew up watching the <em>Polka Dot Door</em>,” Harun says. “You end up really connecting with the hosts on TVO. That’s what you remember as a kid; oh my gosh, I love Patty, I love Joe, I love all of the hosts that I grew up with.”<!--more-->
Harun who is from Newmarket, joined the TVOKids’ afternoon programming, <em>The Space</em>, in February. She graduated from the University of Waterloo, where she studied theatre and business, and sings in a cover band called The All Day Breakfast.
According to the band’s MySpace page, she “once rode an elephant in Thailand, went to an anti-racism conference in South Africa and learned French in France.”
Standing, she comes up to Polkaroo’s neckline. She is equally as colourful with a rainbow headband, a floral scarf and a royal blue jacket. She says she is somewhere in her teens and twenties.
“You can call me ageless. Right, Polkaroo?” She says. Polkaroo puts his hand over her mouth. “You also have no age.”
“Polkaroo!” He responds.
He strikes various poses for <em>Post</em> photographer Aaron Lynett.
“What’s your good angle, eh Polkaroo?” Harun asks. “Every angle.”
“Let’s get a fan going,” Lynett jokes.
The wind could fluff the yellow yarn on Polkaroo’s head, Harun adds.
She tells me about Polkaroo’s favourite pastimes while he mimes each action. He likes to play hide-and-seek, make crafts, sing and dance — “That looks like surfing,” she says of his dance moves.
Harun became a host midway through the station’s reading challenge. The goal was to get children to complete a million minutes of reading. “It was great to see how direct the line was between what we’re doing and the kids at home. We’d go on a break and say, ‘Get online right now and log what you’re reading.’ After that call to action, you’d see the numbers rise.”
She’s reading Hermann Hesse’s <em>Siddhartha</em> and <em>Talent is Overrated</em> by Geoff Colvin. Polkaroo mimes what he likes to read. He pulls his hands away from his head. “Mind expanding books ... things to make you smarter?” Harun guesses. “Non-fictions, biographies.”
It’s like charades.
What is Polkaroo’s backstory? I ask. (What exactly is a Polkaroo?)
“Polkaroo,” he says, adding a dizzying array of hand signals. “Polkaroo. Polkaroo. Polkaroo. Polkaroo!”
“That clarifies things,” Harun says. “You were very eloquent.”
Before we leave, even Lynett wants to mark this moment with a photo with Polkaroo.
“My mom’s going to die,” he says.
<strong>Highlights of Word on the Street Toronto 2010</strong>
Among the more than 200,000 people expected to converge on Queen’s Park today, Sunday, Sept. 26, for The Word on the Street will be Polkaroo and others from the TVO gang. Toronto’s book and magazine festival also marks its 21st anniversary with Yann Martel and other authors, booksellers, publishers and musicians. Admission is free, and the fest runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Here are a few suggestions of what to check out:
<strong>Catch the big fish:</strong> Acclaimed and award-winning authors such as Yann Martel, Richard B. Wright and Kenneth Oppel will read from their new books at the Bestsellers Stage.
<strong>Hear from the city’s best: </strong>The nominees for the 2010 City of Toronto Book Awards will present their works in the City of Toronto tent. The winner and recipient of the $15,000 prize will be announced on Oct. 14.
<strong>Bring the kids:</strong> The TVOKids Stage has singalongs, Gisele, her Big Backyard friends and Polkaroo.
<strong>See Penguin’s stars:</strong> Penguin Group (Canada)’s festival tent starts the day with Stuart McLean and ends with Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome.
<strong>Learn the craft:</strong> Aspiring writers can take in a workshop by novelists Wayson Choy, Anthony De Sa and Andrew Pyper.
<strong>Learn to cook:</strong> The Cooks ’n’ Books Stage will feature demos and samplings by top chefs, including Mark McEwan, Michael Bonacini, Massimo Capra and Jason Parsons.
<strong>Go on a scavenger hunt:</strong> Chase literary clues, lines of poetry and books. Complete the hunt and win a prize. What are the odds the prize will be a book? For details, visit the Diaspora Dialogues tent.
Asked by the judge if his lawyers had acted in his best interests, he said: “Very much.”
O’Toole said he remains concerned about disclosures in the media that possibly could have come from law enforcement sources. But he said prosecutors have responded to Tsarnaev’s lawyers’ complaints, reinforcing that officials shouldn’t be talking to reporters.
Prosecutors and defence attorneys were expected to discuss the jury selection process. Both sides have submitted questions they want the judge to ask potential jurors, who will be selected from a pool of at least 1,200 people.
A defence motion to move the trial out of Boston also is still pending. Earlier this month, Tsarnaev’s lawyers argued anew that “emotionally charged” media coverage and the widespread impact of the attacks have made it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Massachusetts.
O’Toole had rejected Tsarnaev’s first request in September to move the trial, ruling that defence lawyers had failed to show that extensive pretrial media coverage of the bombings had prejudiced the jury pool to the point that an impartial jury could not be chosen in Boston.
Tsarnaev’s lawyers previously said the trial should be moved to Washington, D.C.
O’Toole also rejected a defence request that prosecutors turn over evidence about his older brother’s possible participation in a 2011 triple killing in suburban Waltham.
