{"id":27578,"date":"2013-10-25T12:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T16:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=27578"},"modified":"2013-10-25T12:43:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T16:43:29","slug":"jury-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/10\/jury-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury Duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I had a perfectly good reason to be excused from jury duty; but that word \u201cduty\u201d resonated with my fifth-generation German-American DNA, not to mention I\u2019m just plain nosy. I set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. and drove to my destination.<\/p>\n

The courthouse doors were locked and several other rain-drenched arrivals and I huddled under a miniscule overhang. Finally, we ambled in and waited for numbers to be called from the jury pool.<\/p>\n

While \u201cpeople-watching,\u201d I noticed a middle-aged woman scurrying to the front desk every fifteen minutes and engaging an employee in conversation. The employee shook his head no and Ms. Antsy sat down again.<\/p>\n

A bailiff called sixty potential jurors including Ms. Antsy and me. We followed our leader to a courtroom hallway. He informed us, \u201cLine up according to the numbers I call and when inside and seated, that will be your seat for the duration of the trial. Read through the sheet of possible questions the attorneys might ask you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A disheveled guy behind me asked, \u201cWhat\u2019d he say?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whew! A strong whiff of garlic hit me. Before I could answer him the bailiff continued, \u201cThe judge, court reporter and attorneys need to hear you. Do not mumble!\u201d<\/p>\n

We obediently followed him into an iceberg\/room. Mr. Garlic, sporting grungy dungarees with knee holes, a tee-shirt advertising \u201cEat Bertha\u2019s Mussels\u201d and flip-flops (business attire?) plunked down next to me and muttered, \u201cHoly s___! I\u2019m going to freeze my butt off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge asked, \u201cRaise your hand if you need to be excused\u2026and speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a dozen folks gave a variety of excuses that didn\u2019t wash except for Ms. Antsy who pleaded, \u201cJudge, I\u2019ve been sick all day and have diarrhea.\u201d She was dismissed \u2013 a brilliant excuse.<\/p>\n

The prosecuting attorney began interrogating, but similar to herding sixty cats, we nervous jurors weren\u2019t cooperating. We were a room-full of soft-spoken, intimidated folks with blue lips and the judge continually urged us to speak-up.<\/p>\n

The prosecuting attorney focused on me. \u201cMs. Nieman, what is your occupation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an author and a columnist, Sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

I read his lips as he tilted toward his colleague and asked, \u201cDid she say she was a Communist?\u201d His partner shrugged.<\/p>\n

Two hours of in-depth questioning ground to a halt and we broke for lunch. Upon returning our bailiff asked us to wait. Those quick on the up-take dove for the few chairs; the remainder sat on the floor, backs to the wall. We all wondered why the delay.<\/p>\n

Back inside we gave the defending attorney our attention except for Mr. Garlic who softly snored and cuddled into me. Beyond caring, I welcomed the extra warmth. Finally, we were again dismissed to the inhospitable hallway.<\/p>\n

During our interminable \u201cwaits,\u201d I sold a couple of books and briefly considered claiming business mileage as an expense. At 5:30 we fell into line and filed in. The court reporter announced the chosen six jurors, two alternates\u2026and not me. Nuts! I figured it was that \u201cCommunist\u201d thing.<\/p>\n

Would I do it again? Of course! I\u2019m fifth-generation German-American. Remember? But, next time I\u2019ll give my occupation as \u201cRetired.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a perfectly good reason to be excused from jury duty; but that word \u201cduty\u201d resonated with my fifth-generation German-American DNA, not to mention I\u2019m just plain nosy. I… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}