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I had Jury Duty on Tuesday. Despite Mapquest turning 700 E. 7th street into 700e W. 7th Street, leading me to park about 7 or 8 blocks away and showing up right on the 9am dot, everything went well. They didn't start jury selection until 10am. I wasn't selected to be on the jury. I was off by one. The judge invited all the non-jury members to sit for the trial. I was the only one who did. It was only a not wearing a seatbelt misdemeanor, but it was very interesting nonetheless. The defendent defended himself.
The cop claimed that while he (the cop) was waiting at a stoplight, the driver went past (in the dark) in front of him and he could see that there was no seatbelt, so he pulled him over. The driver claimed that he peeled out of a gas station, the cop saw him, pulled into the gas station, and followed him out of the gas station, then pulled him over. He only got the ticket for no seatbelt out of spite, since he put the seatbelt on when he first saw the cop and took it off when he was waiting for the cop to run his record.
The judge giving instructions to the jury was like a test proctor reading the directions for the SAT's.
When the jury left, the judge and prosecuting attourney congratulated the defendant for doing such a good job defending himself. They were impressed that it was only his first time.
The judge took a poll of all the people in the courtroom (the judge, the court reporter, the prosecuter, the defendant, and me) of when the jury would return. The answers were between 5 minutes and 30 minutes, but I left when they were still talking about it an hour later. They sent in two questions to the judge asking if there was a lesser charge of wearing a seatbelt improperly that could be applied. The judge said it was all or nothing.
The jury took too long so I left before I found out the verdict. They were two completely different stories, so it's no wonder that the jury was taking forever to decide. It's a maximum $50 fine, so this was being given way more time than it really needed.
It was interesting. I only wish i knew how it turned out, but I had to get back to work.
The cop claimed that while he (the cop) was waiting at a stoplight, the driver went past (in the dark) in front of him and he could see that there was no seatbelt, so he pulled him over. The driver claimed that he peeled out of a gas station, the cop saw him, pulled into the gas station, and followed him out of the gas station, then pulled him over. He only got the ticket for no seatbelt out of spite, since he put the seatbelt on when he first saw the cop and took it off when he was waiting for the cop to run his record.
The judge giving instructions to the jury was like a test proctor reading the directions for the SAT's.
When the jury left, the judge and prosecuting attourney congratulated the defendant for doing such a good job defending himself. They were impressed that it was only his first time.
The judge took a poll of all the people in the courtroom (the judge, the court reporter, the prosecuter, the defendant, and me) of when the jury would return. The answers were between 5 minutes and 30 minutes, but I left when they were still talking about it an hour later. They sent in two questions to the judge asking if there was a lesser charge of wearing a seatbelt improperly that could be applied. The judge said it was all or nothing.
The jury took too long so I left before I found out the verdict. They were two completely different stories, so it's no wonder that the jury was taking forever to decide. It's a maximum $50 fine, so this was being given way more time than it really needed.
It was interesting. I only wish i knew how it turned out, but I had to get back to work.
