Jury duty. Nabbed. Dang! Do you have any interesting jury duty stories to share?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I haven’t been assigned yet, so I can discuss for now. Today is my first day reporting in.

My last time was maybe 10-15 years ago. I was placed on a jury, an unpleasant criminal case about a couple who ran a small day care out of their home. Sadly, the husband was an accused child molester who repeatedly attacked a little girl. A terrible case. I was the foreman and we put that flocker away. GUILTY.

Being the foreman was a balance between modulating those who really wanted to talk and expound on their tangential ‘war stories’ (some people just GOTTA talk!), and drawing out the quiet and reserved ones who almost wouldn’t talk unless called upon. I made sure everyone was heard. I also remember ‘herding the cats’ to keep us focused on the task at hand. I wasn’t shy about cutting people off and say, Let’s move on, or, That’s interesting, Dave; Judith what do you think? Fortunately it was a relatively easy case. The case lasted 2-3 days, IIRC because it’s been a few years, and then our deliberations lasted maybe 3 hours. Not too bad.

So what’s your jury duty story(ies)? Be sure to abide by the rules that apply to you, but, please share!

2

I was the foreperson on two juries. Both were battery cases and pretty easy guilty verdicts. One was in 2008 and one in 2022. The biggest difference? In 2008 we really got to know each other during the downtime. We talked about everything except the case. In 2022 that didn’t happen at all. Very little chit chat. I’m sure you can guess why. Smartphones.

3

I have served as a foreperson, a non-foreperson, seated in the jury box but dismissed, waited at the courthouse for a day and then dismissed, and dismissed before having to go to the courthouse. I suppose the only flavor I am missing is lodging an excuse to delay jury duty.

The trial where I was foreperson was my first - a worker’s comp fraud case - we had to sit thru hours and hours of sub rosa video of the defendant walking around using a prescribed cane, and not using his cane. Hours and hours of that. Ended up a hung jury/mistrial. Turns out it was the 2nd time the case was brought to the court, the first trial also ending up the same. Effing waste of two weeks of my life.

One trial I was not foreperson was a murder case. The defendant waited in a car and shot his supervisor after being laid-off (evidently, shooting from a car brings a more serious charge). There were a lot of racial overtones on this one - right after the Treyvon Martin murder trial and a lot of tensions here - the defendant was black and the supervisor white. The judge asked us all before the trial if the justice system in this country could be considered color-blind and trustworthy - other jurors maundered long-winded answers, and I gave a one-word answer “No.” The trial ended abruptly when the defendant accepted some plea deal for life in prison.

One other trial I was on as non-foreperson was more recent, like a couple years ago. I was not initially seated in the jury box, but after several people up there were removed, my effing number was called and I was seated, dammit! That one was a human trafficking case, and I learned a lot about that dark underworld in my metro. Very sad and distressing, TBH. The guy was convicted on a couple charges, but not the more serious human trafficking charge. When the trial ended the judge invited the jury to hang around the hallway and speak to the press - but I bolted out of there ASAP.

I have lived in this county for 26 years and have gotten more jury notices than anyone I know. WTF!!

4

This is only mildly interesting but back in the 70’s Mrs. Cretin’s first jury duty was a 19 year old Mexican boy who was caught trying to bring a car into the country with a pretty big cache of hidden marijuana (border crossing Tijuana to San Diego). On the witness stand he tearfully insisted he’d been tricked into being a mule, had no idea what was hidden inside. They believed him, found him not guilty in less than an hour.

5

Very timely thread. I lived in my last county over 20 years all told and never got a notice. Moved here 4 months ago and got a jury notice this week. I think it’s pretty unlikely I’ll get pick up for a criminal trial but you never know.

6

Two stories: First, I got picked, showed up, got assigned, went in for voir dire – and knew one of the defense attorneys; she and her husband drank at the same Irish bar where my wife and I drank. Came my time to stand and deliver and she hops up. “Your Honor, this gentleman and I are acquainted, so he should be excused.” “How so?” asks the judge. She says “Uhhhhhhhh …” because she doesn’t want to say “He and I drink together” and I jump in with “We belong to the same social club.” She flashed me a smile. The judge says, “Ah, Rotarians or something? I don’t think that will matter, but I’ll make a note.” I had to go back the second day, when I was finally excused.

Second story: Got picked for a case where one of the charges was burglary. We were given the specific law to consider and retired to deliberate. Turns out Florida’s burglary law is very vaguely written, and we couldn’t make sense of it so we sent a note to the judge. She wrote out the law that we couldn’t understand in the first place and sent it back to us. We sent a note back, saying we still didn’t get it. We very quickly got a note back that said, “You have been instructed in the law, now get to work,” and that’s pretty much a direct quote.

Turns out, in Florida, encroaching on a demarcated part of the property (such as a patio or screened-in porch) with the intent to commit a crime, any crime, is burglary. It doesn’t have to involve theft, and you don’t have to enter the house. All twelve of us had images of sneaky guys in striped sweaters, knit caps, black eye masks, holding large sacks with dollar signs printed on the side. WRONG.

7

I only got called for jury duty once in my life and that wasn’t until I was in my late 60s. Got called and selected in Portland for a lawsuit case where a woman was seeking damages for a botched needle injection that rendered her arm unusable for everyday things like driving a car, etc. Her husband testified that their sex life had gone in the toilet for months. We awarded her a half million. They tried to call me again the following year, but I had aged out at 70 and was exempt if I elected to do so. I did.

8

I get called more than anyone I know, about every 2-3 years, but have never been on a jury. In fact, I think I’ve only made it out of the main j-d waiting room for voir dire about 3 times out of 15ish?

I’ve served JD at these Chicago-area courthouses:

Skokie,
Rolling Meadows,
Maywood,
Daley Center,
26 & Calif,
Dirksen Federal Building.

9

We’re on a break for a few hours while those who are trying to be excused make their cases to the judge. Good, I can run some errands.

I haven’t been assigned and the case hasn’t started, so I’m not prohibited to discuss, yet. The Judge is Christopher G. Rudy, Department 40 of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County.

It’s a criminal case, should be short, approx 5-7 days, about a guy accused of stalking and threatening bodily harm. The judge has a good sense of humor, so that’s good. He joked about everyone Googling how to get out of jury duty. He also shared about Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin, who tried to get out of his jury duty. He’s a busy guy and had a good reason to not serve at that particular time, but he wasn’t excused, he was deferred and had to serve later. Oh and the judge himself also got called to serve on jury duty, in November 2024. So he did not have a magic card that got him off. He quoted Thomas Jefferson who said that serving on a jury is as important as voting, so there’s that.

I’m off to run some errands and have to return by 1330.

10

Never got to sit on a jury.

Closest I got was as an alternate alternate. Me and another guy had to stay through voir dire, but were not asked any questions, and were just backups in the event too many people were dismissed, including the regular alternates.

That one was just a drunk driving case, but there was a chance it would have been much more exciting. I was there on the same day as jury selection for a trial that ended up involving jury tampering and attempted bribery.

If I recall she left a note in the jury box offering money. The juror who found it immediately turned it into the bailiff. She later fled and was arrested trying to leave the country.

11

I was the foreperson on a jury for a DUI case. Her breathalyzer was borderline, and when she was taken to the police station, they videotaped her walking around and talking. She appeared as sober as a judge, which was a good thing since one of my jurors was going to hold out for innocent on principle, no matter what happened. He said he didn’t believe in DUI laws. This was clearly juror nullification, and I was going to notify the judge, but we all agreed that she wasn’t intoxicated, so it didn’t matter what that juror decided to do.

12

I’m in Cook County, as well, and I would get a jury summons, like clockwork, every year or so. A lot of those were for “standby” jurors (where you called the night before, to see if you were actually needed), but I wound up in the jury pool room three times before I actually got called in for interviewing, and that’s when I actually was empaneled as a juror. That was 17 years ago, and I have not gotten a jury duty summons since then.

The trial (which was at the county courthouse in south suburban Markham) lasted for two days; it was a DUI trial with a bunch of other charges tacked on: resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, damaging public property (the inside of a squad car), open intoxicants in a motor vehicle, etc.

What struck me about this case was just how flimsy the prosecution’s case was. This all happened in a poorer suburb, which is notorious for its governmental corruption, and it became clear to all of us that the arresting officer did not like the defendant’s attitude, and so, they threw on a bunch of extra charges. For example, the officer claimed that he found open booze bottles in the car; their “evidence” was a photograph of the bottles, which was taken on a desk at the police station.

The defense claimed that the defendant knew he was too drunk to drive, and though he owned the car which was being driven, his friend was behind the wheel (said friend testified to this). The prosecution’s only evidence that the defendant was driving was the officer’s testimony. The defense claimed that the defendant trashed the inside of an ambulance when he was being transported to the hospital, but gave us no evidence other than the testimony of the ambulance driver – whose account did not line up with the officer’s in numerous ways, including the prosecution’s account of the timing of events.

Once we got into the jury room for deliberation, I wound up being elected foreman, and we deliberated for about two hours. Everyone agreed that the state’s case stunk, and the only real debate was that two of my fellow jurors wanted to acquit the guy on everything. We wound up returning guilty verdicts on two charges – resisting arrest and damaging public property (kicking out the window of a police car) – because those were things which the defendant, himself, admitted to during his testimony.

13

I’ve only been called up once, never actually served; I was one of the first potential jurors to be dismissed. I only came to the conclusion later that this was likely because I’d been unable to sleep for well over 24 hours due to nerves and general insomnia. I was very twitchy, relying on lots of caffeine and determination to stay awake and acting quite weird in retrospect.

A later-rejected person who came out after me mentioned that it was apparently some fairly gruesome murder case, so I’m even gladder of that than I would be otherwise.

14

Obviously, I wasn’t in your courtroom, but I’d suggest it’s a very bad idea (and perhaps a violation of the judge’s orders) to post anything about the case on social media, including the SDMB. The reasons for that are many, but primarily, once you give some facts, other people might well start giving you some information that you shouldn’t have.

I did see this, but I’m suggesting you refrain. Also, you may have misunderstood. Most of the time the judges say “do not discuss” very early in the process.

I haven’t been assigned and the case hasn’t started, so I’m not prohibited to discuss, yet.

15

I served on a grand jury in my county some years ago. It was once a month for 6 months as I recall, and they brought in the best donuts for us to snack on!!!

There were two problem children on the jury. One was a young woman who kept falling asleep. The other was an older woman who couldn’t wrap her head around the notion that we were to determine if there was sufficient evidence to bring the cases to trial, NOT to decide guilt or innocence. Fortunately, there were enough of us, and because of majority rule, neither of the two problem children had any effect beyond annoying the rest of us.

One case we had to consider was a really gruesome murder. We had to look at the crime scene photos (definitely gruesome) and hear all the details. But the accused murderer was imprisoned in another state and facing similar charges in still another. The chances of him even being brought back to Maryland were between slim and none - I think he was serving a life sentence for, yep, murder. But we agreed that should he ever be freed from either of the other two charges/sentences, Maryland should prosecute. Not a nice man.

The murder took place in a beauty salon across the street from our vet, and every time I drive past it, I remember my stint on grand jury.

I was also summoned to be on a trial jury about 6 years ago, but they seated enough folks and my number didn’t come up again. Having said that, I expect I’ll be called up any day now…

16

I seem to get called every 3-4 years, but most times they never get to my group number so I don’t even have to report. I have made it into the box four times, but excused every time. One time (murder case), the crime scene was on the other side of the block from where I lived from age 2 to 18. My familiarity with the neighborhood was enough for the defense to excuse me. Another time (wrongful death), I was on the board of directors of a group that was being sued for wrongful death, and the plaintiff’s attorney excused me. A third time (drunk driving with major injuries, I think) I knew the arresting officer as a customer at the sushi bar where I worked. A fourth time (some civil matter that I’ve forgotten), before either side could question me, the judge announced to both sides that he knew me and my family for 25+ years. My mother had been his son’s preschool teacher, and when the judge was a Deputy District Attorney, he prosecuted several cases where my brother was a victim and primary witness (one set of crimes but separate trials for multiple defendants), so he was at our house a LOT during those trials, and he remained close with my parents for years. I don’t remember which side asked for me to be excused.

A couple of days after the fourth experience, the judge told my mom that he thought it was a mistake for either side to excuse me.

17

Couple of years ago. I was one of the lucky six empaneled for a civil suit. Listened to 1½ days of arguments. Thought about it very hard overnight. Came to a solid conclusion that I think the rest of the jury shared. Never got to find out, because just before lunchtime, the judge walks in and says the case is dismissed. Thank you and go home. I think the plaintiff, who I was going to vote against, realized his case sucked and he dropped it.

Weird thing is, I brained my brain so hard on that case that I kept finding myself going over it again for months to follow, long after it was irrelevant. Really tried hard to drop it from my mind.