Second Verse, Same as the First

Continuing with my jury saga (and a saga it is indeed turning into), ALL unassigned jurors were called in to the Jury Duty room for an 8:30- am time on Friday. There were 59 of us assembled there, many taking advantage of the department's generosity at providing fresh coffee, orange juice and a lovely selection of donuts, both filled and cake. I had my herbal tea so I was just fine. 

It was very kind of the Jury Duty Office to provide beverages 
and sweets for us. Having all of us called in was quite 
unusual - usually they don't deal with prospective 
jurors (or only a minimal number) on a Friday. 

Shortly before 9:00 am we were all gathered by roll call and accompanied our Court Clerk to the 12th floor. We gathered in every seat throughout the courtroom and listened to the Judge explain what the case was about and how she was going to conduct the trial. In my previous case, there had been a single lawyer for the defense and only one for the prosecution. Here, there were two lawyers for the State and two lawyers for the defendant; three of the four lawyers were female (which doesn't really make any difference, I just found it interesting). The defendant was a heavy-set black man with his hair in short dreads. I didn't get a frontal view of him, so have no idea of his age or demeanor. 

We were given a bare basic description of the case and told to move to a room down the hall to fill out an extensive questionnaire, before returning in smaller groups on Tuesday to meet with the lawyers and the judge for more extensive questioning and perhaps some one-on-one questions. 

I was shocked and dismayed at the basic outline of the 
current case which I might be hearing, and I'm quite 
sure my feelings were shared by most, if not all, of 
the potential jurors. 

Why all of the extra stuff? Well, it turns out that this case deals with the sexual abuse of a young girl under the age of thirteen supposedly assaulted by the Defendant. We weren't told anything more than that, but my friend from my former case, Miki, whispered that she had told them she refused to be on the jury of any sexual abuse cases. I told her to write it down on her questionnaire, and we all left for the other empty courtroom, where I sat in an attorney's chair and one of my other acquaintances from the former trial took the judge's chair. Every chair and some spots on the floor were occupied by the 59 of us filling out our multi-page questionnaires. 

The questions were tough - very detailed and wanting specifics from each juror on their feelings, their opinions and their personal experiences. A woman behind me went into hysterical weeping and finally had to be removed from the room by the Court Clerk, for a private discussion. I'm pretty sure she's already been dismissed. I also know there were at least two people who had  airplane tickets for vacations that were starting next week that were probably also dismissed. (The first of the two had tickets for a Tuesday morning flight). The rest of us will gather on Tuesday at one of three times, 20 per group. 

No, I'm not off Jury Duty yet. I'm being 
extended into next week, starting on Tuesday 
since Monday is a holiday in the USA. That 
creates all kinds of problems for the shop, 
and requiring me to be at the court by 9:00 
am is also problematic. 

This is already getting a little long, so I'll continue this on Monday morning. I hope you have an excellent day and a good weekend. Slava Ukraini.