Doug Clark: ‘Sprung’, the holiday for acquittal

As we all know, the floral industry is forever trying to invent new ways to con consumers into ordering more and more flowers.

Come on. Are you telling me Administrative Professionals Day (also known as Secretary’s Day) wasn’t hatched in some steamy greenhouse by FTD henchmen?

But I never would have guessed in a billion years that America’s next “Say it with flowers” day might come from the leader of a Superior Court jury.

Yet after helping acquit Clifford Helm – whose erratic driving took the lives of five young children – Rebecca Backstrom, who served as the presiding juror, sent the 58-year-old Deer Park man a bouquet of flowers.

This could lead to a new holiday. I will call it the first day of “Sprung.”

Mark your calendars, folks.

March 14 is the day to send flowers to anyone sprung from the jaws of justice by a misguided jury.

That may not be the exact day Backstrom sent her flowers to Helm. But it is the day Helm’s mysterious defense (maybe I fainted after a coughing fit, but who knows?) proved enough to buffalo Backstrom and 11 other jurors.

Am I the only one still reeling from their verdicts?

The trial took three weeks. Less than three hours was spent deliberating before the jury headed back to the courtroom to deliver the news.

Helm was found not guilty on five counts of vehicular homicide. The charges came following the Nov. 1, 2005, deaths of the Schrock children: Carmen Joy, 12, Jana Louise, 10, Carrina Jean, 8, Jerryl Burdette, 4, and Craig Alan, 2.

The jury also acquitted Helm on one count of vehicular assault against the children’s father, Jeffrey Schrock. Helm hit Jeffrey’s truck head-on after weaving his own truck all over a stretch of U.S. Highway 395.

Call me a cheapskate. But I think all those declarations of “not guilty” are enough gifts for ol’ Helm.

Backstrom thought otherwise, obviously. She had a “Sprung” bouquet delivered to Helm via a Deer Park florist.

For a recent newspaper story, Backstrom told reporter Karen Dorn Steele that “people need to mind their own business” regarding her “goodwill gesture.”

I don’t think so.

I will take Backstrom at her word when she says she has no connection to the Helm family.

And her flowers were given post-trial, so what she did isn’t jury misconduct.

That said, this is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard of, and I’m not alone in my concern.

“You’re kidding me,” said one of Backstrom’s fellow jurors in the newspaper story. “Wow. If I was going to send any flowers, it wouldn’t be to them.”

No kidding. The only victims in this tragedy are named Schrock.

Backstrom claimed in the story that she would have also sent flowers to the Schrock family had she known how to reach them at their Mennonite church mission in Belize.

What a lame excuse.

This is the information age. Practically anything can be found with a computer and a Google search.

Besides, the Schrocks came back here to testify. And for her story, reporter Dorn Steele managed to interview a Mennonite spokesman at the fellowship that included the Schrocks.

So please. How tough could getting flowers to them be?

You know, if “Sprung” has an anthem, it would be a new take on the old hit song “Red Roses for a Blue Lady.”

I can almost hear it now.

“I’d like some fresh posies for a bad driver. Mister florist, take my order please.”