MR. HOFFMAN: Actually, Lin, Patrick Burke has information that he should have told you about which he announced to the media that according to him the grand jury actually took a straw poll. Why don't you ask Patrick Burke.

MR. WOOD: Let me tell you, Darnay, that won't count against my time.

MR. HOFFMAN: Okay.

MR. WOOD: But you're right, it was a straw poll; it was a vote not to indict. Thank you for bringing something to my attention that I already knew.

Interestingly, Patrick Burke, at the time, did not say that a straw poll had been taken. He only said that he had heard rumors of a straw poll. Are rumors now to be taken as hard fact?

http://web.dailycamera.com/extra/ramsey/2000/19lrams.html

"The rumors that I have heard, and they are just rumors, were that they took a straw poll of the grand jurors and said there was not going to be an indictment, and the case then was closed in terms of grand jury," Boulder attorney Patrick Burke told a group of attorneys gathered for a seminar Friday at the Adams Mark Hotel.