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Friday, November 21, 2008
News Jury duty? We're talking about jury duty?
Posted By Cheris Hodges on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 5:01 PM
Think it’s funny to ignore that jury summons?
Mecklenburg County wants you to believe that it isn’t, but after spending an afternoon in court listening to people who ignored jury summonses, the joke seems to be on the county and the taxpayers.
For instance, some of the 40 people who didn’t show up weren’t even American citizens. The Trial Court Administration didn’t know that? Judge Albert Diaz told the people who could prove that they weren’t citizens that they weren’t fit for jury duty. You’d think that information would be given to the people who issue those orders.
But for those people who just gave a big middle finger to the court system and their jury duty, today was the day that they threw themselves on the mercy of the court and let me tell, Diaz ain’t that merciful.
There was one would-be-juror that had her stuff together. Jocelyn is a graduate student in Durham and she changed her voter registration before she was issued her jury summons. She told the judge when she received the first summons, she figured that it was in error since she’d left Mecklenburg County.
By the time she got the third one, she figured she’d better get here. It just so happened that Tropical Storm Hanna was coming too.
Jocelyn said Independence was flooded, Central Avenue was flooded and despite the fact that she left Durham with enough time to make it to court as ordered, she didn’t get to the jury staging area until 8:30 a.m. Jurors are supposed to be in court by 8 a.m.
Jocelyn brought a copy of that day’s newspaper to back up her story and her voter’s registration card.
Diaz: “Do you plan to move back to Charlotte when you graduate?”
Jocelyn: “No!”
You go girl.
But everybody wasn’t as prepared as Jocelyn. And if Diaz found that your excuses for not showing up didn’t cut the mustard, you were fined $150 — 50 bucks for each summons you ignored — and you still have to serve on a jury in January.
James tried the “I moved” spiel. He told Diaz that he was now living in Monroe. He said the summons went to his mother’s house and he doesn’t get mail there anymore.
“This is something I was looking forward to and I wouldn’t have missed a chance to serve on a jury,” he said — clearly sounding like a brown-noser.
It didn’t work.
The judge asked him if he had proof of his new address, driver’s license, utility bill or lease.
James said no.
James got fined. And since he was so hot to serve on the jury, he’s required to be back in Mecklenburg County on Jan. 12.
I guess serving on a jury is important, but having an Assistant District Attorney in a court room of people who are guilty of skipping out on jury duty when career criminals are out on bail awaiting trial just seems a little wasteful.
So, the moral of this story is when they call you for jury duty, please go. Then maybe some real criminals can get put away.
But in the words of Allen Iverson:
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