Jury Duty - For the 4th Time

Wow, it has been over a month since I posted on my poor blog. I've been giving Facebook too much of my time.

Anyways, after postponing my jury duty services twice, I had to show up to the downtown courthouse on Tuesday. The jury room was packed, and after the inspiration speech by that 100 year old judge whose been around forever, I sat and waited for my name to be called. They announce that there was one case that was expected to take three weeks, so I marked the box that indicated I could not be on a case that long. They also wanted a detailed reason why I could not be on that case, so I had to indicate my company only pays for one week of jury duty.

Just before lunch, my name was called, so me and 35 other jurors marched up to courtroom 19. Once there we eventually were given a randomly selected number and assigned to a seat. I was number 19, which was easy remember. With 12 jurors and two alternates, I was five away from being on the jury. The jury selection process began after lunch and ended in the late afternoon. They ended up dismissing five jurors ahead of me, so yes, I was the second alternate.

Even though the case was going to last only a few days, after they explained the charges, it was apparent that trial was going to be very boring. The defendant was accused of petty theft. He had taken money from undercover narcotics officers who were trying to buy drugs from him, and he never returned with the drugs - or money. This happened two days in a row - thus the two chargers. So apparently the San Diego police could not arrest him for selling drugs, so they charged him with steeling money - a total of $100.

All the witnesses were police officers who were on the undercover team those two nights. The defendant, who went by the street name of Cobra, did not testify. The testimony took most of Wednesday and was over by the end of the day. We did not have to return until 2PM the next day.

On Thursday we were given jury instructions and heard the closing arguments from both attorneys. The prosecuting attorney was very professional and did a great job presenting her case. The defendants attorney was not so good. She spoke too fast, seemed disorganized and was probably getting paid less per hour, which really has nothing to do with anything.

Since I was an alternate, the only one since the other alternate juror was released on Wednesday for some unknown reason, I did not join the other jurors as they left for the jury room. I was instructed to wait for a call when the jury had reached a decision. So I went downstairs to the jury lounge and waited until 4:30. When I saw the other jurors come down I knew we would be back on Friday. Bummer.

So Friday morning I went back to the court room and told the bailiff, who was a very nice man who like his job and joked around with us, that I'd be downstairs again. This time I brought a book. I sat there until noon, reading and being very board. I took my lunch at noon and returned at one. After another half hour, I was paged and asked to go to jury services. I was told that the trial was over and I could go home. The lady said the courtroom clerk was supposed to have called me when the jury reached a verdict. She even called the clerk and asked her "are you new?". Turns out the jury left before lunch! Not only did they forget to call me, I could have left two hours ago. I asked to speak to the clerk, only to find out what the verdict was. They found him guilty, which was they way I was leaning, had I been one the twelve angry men/women.

I felt kind of sad that I was not called up for the reading of the verdict. I at least wanted to be there and then say buy to the other jurors, judge, bailiff and prosecuting attorney. After all, she was very tall - and cute, but did have a huge wedding ring on. So, now I'm exempt from jury duty for three more years.