bummed out

I was really excited about jury duty... then at 10:30 the announced all of today's cases settled and they didn't need us anymore... what a downer....
Now I have to wait until 2007 to be drawn again.

sighs

Jury Duty

Things have changed over the past 12 years... (I first had jury duty in 1993.)

I am sitting in the basement of the Stanislaus County Court House in Modesto, CA. waiting. But in the old days (only a decade ago) You had to bring your own books, magazines, beverages, and other entertainment. Not today!

The first thing I noticed were the PC's with a sign "computers are reserved for jurors only" Hot diggity dog... this day might not be so long after all! They have several book cases loaded with magazines... literally hundreds of them. They have xerox's of word searches and crossword puzzles. Did I mention they have a cafe in the the juror room? You don't even have to leave to eat... Rumor is they give away free coffee... too bad I don't drink coffee.

Anyways... This is the 4th time I have been called for jury duty. I was only choosen once. The first time. I think it was memorable for many reasons. First of all, I turned 21 in the middle of the case. That in itself is a major landmark in one's life. The second reason is I ended up the jury foreperson. Everyone else was chicken to read the verdict and noone wanted to do it... after all it was against a sherriff in San Diego County. Finally I learned alot about our country and the judicial system. I wasn't necessiarily happy with what I learned, but it was a time of growth.

They say most people either love or hate jury duty. I love it. I believe those who hate it have never sat on a trial. So I am sitting here with no clue as to what any of the cases might be, but I am filled with anticipation and a desire to be choosen.

As for that case years ago that I was on... It was the State of California vs. Samuel Gene Priest. We found him not guilty on 6 of 7 charges... We later found out the one thing we found him guilty of was only added after his first trial ended in a hung jury. Basically he or his wife came across a blank postal money order. She signed the back and was going to cash it. He being a cop said no we can't do that and scratched her name off... with lasers you could see his signature below. He then resigned it with a fake name and took it to a check cashing place ran by a guy we all thought was a corupt as it gets... who let him cash it... well when Sam didn't pay back some loans and they guy heard he got off with a hung jury, he called internal affairs and said I might have something you want.... it was tough... we all felt base don the information the post office gave that we would have had the right to cash it as well... The problem lies in him scratching off his wife's name... at that point it showed he knew he was committing a crime by cashing a money order that was not his. (The money order was never reported lost or stolen.)

The rest of the charges started with illegal aliens accusing him of stealing from them when he pulled them over. The evidence was shakey at best. Unfortunately they did not understand english well, and even with an interperter, one of the victims when asked if he could have imagined it he said yes.. the other vicitim had been on medication and was shakey... so there was the potential that something else could have happened. There were a few charges related to a sting operation that we thought they didn't wait long enough for. The object in question was in his police locker when he was arrested... and it didn't help the da's case to have the lady from internal affairs rolling her eyes all the time when people were testifying.

Probably the kewlest part was that I had scheduled my vacation at work before I got my jury duty notice. I had scheduled my two weeks eight weeks apart. In the end I went on vacation a week, went to work a week, went to jury duty 6 weesks, went to work a week, went back on vacation. When I really got back to work, alot of people didn't know I still worked there. It was a nice hiatas.