Scenes from Jury Duty, The End

by Jeff, guest blogger

The fourth and final installment of the saga of jury duty at the Superior Court…..

The afternoon of jury service demonstrated a far more procedural competence that the morning did.  The afternoon proceedings were far less comical than the morning, other that this constant need for breaks.  Apparently, those who work for the Superior Court all have bladder issues requiring breaks every 75 minutes.

After a nice three hour lunch with friends, we last 60 of the jury pool were right at 2 p.m. promptly shepherded off by Attila to Courtroom B.  Since I have since been dismissed by the court with no instructions to the contrary, I can tell you that case was one of prostitution.  Apparently, a sting operation against a massage parlor yielded two arrests some time back in our humble hometown.  Don’t know where or names.  Sorry you more curious type.  The defendants had pleaded not guilty, and they had interpreters translating the proceedings into Mandarin Chinese for them.

The entire case was to consist of three prosecution witnesses, zero defense witnesses and is expected to make it to deliberations before noon on Monday.  During jury questioning by the judge, I was surprised by the number of individuals who felt that prostitution should be legal in California.  I suspect some said that to get excused by the judge.  An effective ploy for sure.

Also I re-learned that judges and attorneys are fixated on juror relationships with other attorneys or law enforcement.

I never made it into the jury box in the courtroom.  Our group of 60 went down to the last eight, including me not reaching the jury box.  But the 12 jurors and a single alternate were seated.  I was excused back into the clutches of Attila.  Blessedly at 4:15 p.m. she had wearied from dealing with minions all day and released me from further jury service in 2015.

These missives originally began as an email chain to family, I’m sure to help Jeff pass the time.  We thought they were “blog-worthy”… I did do some minor editing to protect the innocent:)