Last time we met, I was in the midst of jury duty selection. Remember that I had already rescheduled jury duty from sometime in February to my Spring Break. I wasn't called until Wednesday of that week and was informed that I was going to be a potential juror in a six week trial. From my experience two years ago where I was almost a juror for a seven asbestos trial, it was at that time the judge in the case who made it a blanket policy that teachers would have to serve regardless of their situation. Seeing as that I am serving in a San Francisco court and I teach at a private school in Alameda County, I concluded that my "hardship" request would have no sway with any judge. Thinking that I was going to have to go through the process of jury selection because of my belief that I either couldn't be excused nor reschedule a second time, I played the odds that in a group of about 100, there was a small probability that I would end up one of the 15 jurors or alternate jurors.
So I made the blog posting a couple posts back. Go back and read it to familiarize yourself with exactly what I wrote. You don't really learn much about the case, right? So on Monday after the lunch recess, the District Attorney and the defendents lawyers use their preemptory bumps to excuse certain jurors and a jury of 12 is seated, with the people in seats 24, 25 and 26 moving into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd alternate jurors seats, those being 13, 14 and 15. The clerk called names to fill up seats 16 through 26 and I was called to sit in seat 24.
Questioning occurred and it was going at a nice rapid clip. The judge adjourned for break and asked four of us jurors to remain behind. I was one of the four. I am called into the judges chambers and am immediately asked if I had made a posting about the case on a blog. My head is spinning. I had no idea this was going to be the topic. I had no recollection of what I wrote but I did know that I had revealed no details of the case. He then asked me why I wrote about it. After a couple moments, I remembered that I wrote about how pissed I was that I had to come back on Monday. At this point, it was basically mayhem between the judge and I. My quibble (if at this point one can say it was a quibble) was that I felt as if I was working without any information. He nailed me on the fact that I was playing the odds of not being seated. And this made him incensed. He lectured me like a little kid. I just sat there and took it because I end up getting what I wanted, which was off this trial and to serve jury duty at a different time, most likely June. The judge made it a point to not excuse me from service but I had to defer my service and come in again to fulfill this years obligation. At that point, I got up and walked into the courtroom and in front of the entire room, walked right out the door.
So, my mistake in all of this is that I didn't realize that on the first Wednesday I was called in that I was allowed a second postponement or to apply for a hardship excuse or deferral. Had I known this, I would have avoided this all together and not had to sit through two days of court.
BUT, now that we know that the lawyers are out there on the internet searching for us in the cyberworld, here's a pretty easy way to get yourself disqualified.
I want to now write about the substance of the trial, but I'm not sure if I can. Once bitten, twice shy they say. So, judge and lawyers, if you're reading this, you win. You have scared the bejesus out of me and I'm keeping my mouth shut.
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