Indeed, statistically speaking, at least one of the jurors, and perhaps many more, were Roman Catholics. It seems that the jury understood that if you settle cases routinely, few plaintiffs (and their lawyers whose income is not certain) will go to trial so that liability can be legally assessed.
I attended a friendly Roman Catholic produced eating disorder lecture with friends. Based on my interactions with conservative Catholic family members, I asked to know if nonCatholics were welcome and would I be comfortable. The second sentence the woman on the DVD uttered was that only the Roman Catholic Church is Biblical. I announced it was an outrageous statement and walked on. No matter how much I wanted to be polite, I needed to run out.
This is an issue I have always raised about the WT using JW lawyers rather than letting JW lawyers do routine legal matters and hiring legal consultants/outside firms to do the work where knowledge of the world is needed. If I were arguing the closing, I would emphasize, in bullet point fashion, all the ways the WT does protect children. Perhaps no JW lawyer wanted to commit fraud to the court. It seems to me that they made an argument to the jury that should have been made to the judge concerning questions of law.
Any jury would want to know the hard facts. WT literature is written to puff up/lie about the Society. You don't need to be a legal eagle to figure that out. Their zeal, not for Christ or Jehovah, but an organization blinds them. Their work product, the technical legal issues, looks fine. Common sense is what is lacking. Like most people, they just see what they want to see. If the jury were all Witnesses, they would win. The Catholics probaly wanted to strangle the lawyer. It goes a long way to understanding the giant punitive damage award.
Also, what does it matter that Bethelites were shocked by the verdict?. Bethelites are NOT the relevant fact finders.