Jury Duty

Last month I received a letter stating that I had been summoned for Jury Duty.... YUCK! is what I thought upon receiving this. So anyways, I completly forgot about calling the weekend before to see if I actually had to go ( last time I didn't have to) so I remembered on Sunday night. Well, to my dismay I had to go in. It wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't had the whole week off of work starting that Monday, or for the fact that my sister was flying in from Colorado to soend the week with us. So I drive down to the South West Justice Center and wait in line to go through the security check point in which the man in front of me is questioning the security guard about going through explaining " But sir, I already went through this security check point once this morning, I don't see why I would have to go through it again?" Sometimes I wonder if people think before they speak.... So the security guard has to explain to him that no matter how many times he has been through security already, the moment he steps out that door and wants back in, he has to go through it. He finally gets it and the line starts moving again.

I walk down to what they call "the lower floor" (aka the basement) and check in there and sit, and sit and sit some more. Then watch a lovely video of all of these testamonials of how jury duty changed people's lives... blah blah blah... Then this lady sits down next to me and starts talking to me and I had no idea she was even talking to me because I had my ipod in listening to chuck tracks. Anyways, when I finally realize it, I turn to her and she just keeps on talking, she was actually pretty funny. I found out that she did all of the hair and make up for the river dancers and a few sitcoms and also american idol. so that passed by some of the time. and then I ended up seeing 3 people that I knew which is pretty random if you ask me. But it was cool.

They ended up taking everyone that came that day upstairs for a case. Then there are about more then half of them who can't stay due to "financial hardships" so anyways, I was sworn into the court and then found out what the case was about and I will just leave it as, It was a case about a dirty old man, who did dirty old man things. ( my theory on this is that dirty old men all have mustaches, drive vans with no windows and wear sweatpants) all that to say I'm not sure if he had the van and the sweatpants, but he did have the mustache. He failed to register as a sex offender when he moved and he was pleading not guilty. I just kind of sat there trying to figure out how this could even go to court. I mean either the guy registered or he didn't. But that was just my opinion.

So we sit through the interview process and they start with the first 18 people. While in the process of the interviewing this lady gets up and starts walking out of the courtroom, when the deputy starts yelling at the lady to sit back down, she isn't listening and he keeps shouting ( all the while the judge just keeps on talking) then the lady finally gets it and sits back down and in a loud voice states " But I just had to go to the bathroom" that's when the judge decided to recess. So we go out and they say to come back in 15 minutes, which ends up being about 45 minutes. well, when we get back in the man who was pleading not guilty was gone and then we were informed that he had decided to plead guilty. imagine that, it took the guy 8 1/2 hours to decide that. all in all it was a pretty good day, I was actually kind of bummed when I found out that the man pleaded guilty just because I think it would have been fun to be on a trial. It was a good first experiance though. And it wasn't all that bad having to be there on my first day of vacation because they at least had air conditioning which our house has not had in the past three weeks! So that was my Summons for Jury Duty in a nutshell!