On Monday, I had a vague recollection of receiving a jury summons notice for someday in December. I asked my wife Tiffany if she had seen the paper lately and she hadn’t. Yesterday morning, I woke up and it popped back into my mind. So, I went and spent a few minutes searching for it. Sure enough, the summons was for yesterday. Good thing I remembered. I don’t need another bench warrant!
Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, welcome! I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to do something to use my running to make a difference, so I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.
I named this endeavor Operation Jack, after my son. This year is almost done, as is Operation Jack. I’m through 59 of the 61 so far! Today, I’m going to talk about jury duty, though. And to clarify that bench warrant comment, I haven’t had one in 12 or 13 years.
Anyways, back to jury duty. I feel like I should have a lifetime exemption. I spent four weeks on a trial back in 2001 — four weeks that seemed like four years. When I went in, I really wanted to get on a jury. I was working as a sports information director at a college and it was right after the school year ended. I was all set to take a month off and I needed something to do. It was about six weeks before Benjamin was going to be born and other than watching talk shows all day with Tiff, there wasn’t much on the docket.
So, if I got jury duty, I would have something to do, plus I wouldn’t have to take vacation time. I went in, hoping just to get to the selection process. Right before lunch time, I did! They asked for anybody whose employer would cover a four-week trial, and that was ME! We all went up to the courtroom and got random numbers. I was somewhere around 40. They only needed 16 including the alternates, so I knew 24 people would need to get dismissed before they even considered me.
I waited and waited. And waited. I think at the end of that day, they had dismissed enough people and I finally got in the box. I wanted to get selected, but I wasn’t going to try to give any type of answers that I thought they wanted to hear. I was just as open and honest as I could be. They told us the injury involved an injury accident and an auto manufacturer.
It’s funny — early on in the selection process, it was obvious one woman desperately wanted out. When the defense attorney asked her what she thought of auto manufacturers, she said she thought they were all crooks and she’d never believe a word that anybody in the auto industry said. They didn’t ask her another question, but they kept her up in the box until the final dismissals. They played her game right back with her, which I thought was pretty funny.
When they questioned me, I was nervous about getting dismissed. They asked me what I did for a living and I told them. They asked me if there was anything that would jeopardize my ability to serve on a four-week trial, so I told them my wife was due in six weeks. I thought for sure that would wreck me. Nope, the judge said no problem — we’d be out in four.
So they asked me what my wife did for a living. I answered that she managed a Victoria’s Secret store. All of a sudden, everything got silent. So I said, “OK, I know what you all are thinking. Victoria’s Secret and she’s pregnant. But she’s a manager at one of those stores with all the candles and perfumes — not the nightgowns. This was a planned thing.” Everybody was cracking up, and they let the class clown stay a little longer.
What does your wife think about you serving on a jury right now, they asked me. “Well, I’ll be honest. We were watching The Practice last night and they murdered that lawyer in the parking garage, so that spooked her a little bit since she knew I was coming in here today. But I told her that’s just TV and it’s not really like that.” Everybody laughed again, the judge reassured me that it would be safe and they continued. I was just being myself, but I was surprised I hadn’t been booted.
So they asked me if anybody in my family had ever been involved in an auto accident that resulted in a lawsuit. Yeah, my brother was in a near-fatal crash eight years earlier and pursued a lawsuit before dropping it. I couldn’t believe they kept going after that.
Anybody else in a lawsuit involving an auto accident? Actually, yeah — me! A lady ran a red light and t-boned me in 1994, sending me to physical therapy for three months. She sued me, so I said I’d show her and I sued her back (and I showed her). Still no dismissal.
Any other personal-injury lawsuits? Yeah, well, there was that one time I broke my neck and went through a nightmarish three-year legal process. Not a deterrent to either legal team at that point.
Anybody in your family a lawyer? Well, I guess if you want to count my dad, yeah.
Can you be fair? Yeah, I can be fair.
And somehow, they kept me on. I made the jury! I was giddy to run and call my boss when we went on recess. I think that was the last time I was giddy over the next month, though.
The case was a wrongful-death lawsuit. A woman accidentally put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake and drove straight into a wall. The passenger in the front seat wasn’t wearing a lap belt and she died. A boy in the back seat put his arm around his mom and underneath the shoulder belt right before impact and ended up having his arm amputated.
It was a sad story all around, but the bottom line was one woman drove into a wall and another woman wasn’t wearing her seat belt. They sued the auto manufacturer, claiming she was wearing her seat belt. Of the 20 days of the trial, we spent about 12 full days listening to three witnesses evaluate blown-up photos of seat belt threads, arguing about whether or not the woman was wearing her seat belt.
It was BORING. How boring? There was a woman on our jury who had diabetes. She intentionally overloaded on sugar on our lunch break one day so she would have to go to the hospital and get dismissed. Her strategy worked. I struggled to stay focused, but I pulled it off. They didn’t tell us who the alternates were, because they wanted us all to pay attention. I found at the end that I was an alternate, so I didn’t get to deliberate. But I found out later that the defense won the case, which is exactly what I thought would happen. Sad case, but no-brainer.
Yesterday was much less eventful. I went in, plugged in my laptop, got to work and waited. Then it was lunch time, so I walked to In-N-Out. Back in 2001, I walked to that In-N-Out 15 times over a 23-day span! After lunch, I plugged my laptop back in and got back to work. And then I was dismissed. It’ll be at least 12 months before I have to go back.
So that’s my jury duty story. I feel like I’ve done my duty for a lifetime. But I’d never intentionally try to get out of it. It reminds me of something we said when I was a pledge in my fraternity.
To do what ought to be done, but would not have been done unless I did it, I thought to be my duty. I guess that kind of applies to Operation Jack, huh?
Well, that’s all for today. Have a great Wednesday, everybody! I’ll see you back here tomorrow!
Ally Phillips says
This may sound weird: I’m so proud of you that you served on a jury! I was involved in a court case three years ago, and I’m so grateful to the men and women who were on the jury. They listened to a lot of testimony and really spent a lot of time working to give a fair outcome.
After the court case, my dad, who always tried to get out of jury duty, had a change of heart and asked for a summons! Ha! I’m not saying it’s fun, because it’s not, but, thank you for serving. 🙂
Heather Gonzalez says
I have never, ever been called for jury duty…. Not once!
Sharla Wipplinger says
I got called once and made it into the short selection groups twice. The first one had something to do with sexual abuse of a child so I excused myself from that. Wouldn’t have been able to be impartial. The other case was way more interesting to me. It involved a guy being pulled over in a notorious speed trap and getting busted for drugs, which he claimed were in his pants pocket because his roommate had borrowed the jeans & left the drugs in them.
The trial was scheduled to start on Monday, November 8th. The only issue being that my birthday is November 7th, and this happened the year I was turning 21. The judge & lawyers appreciated my honesty about why I would have trouble making it to court at 8am & wished me a happy and safe birthday. I haven’t been summoned since. 🙂
Jose G. says
I think it’s awesome you served!
I don’t understand how people whine and complain about political affairs and then avoid jury duty. It directly impacts your fellow citizens!
My one time on jury duty, we had two HUGE samoan guys on trial for resisting arrest.
It was great because I was one of the few people there to explain the context of the N word (as in “my n___a!” in a friendly tone) and had to explain this to wide eyed old white folks. Bottom line, the argument was just a brotherly dispute, and the cop never said “you are under arrest” so these kids (teens that were as huge as linebackers) got off the charges. I felt really good about this!
Melissa Gillespie says
You could have moved out of state or told them you were bringing your breastfed baby. Both have inadvertantly worked for me in the past. lol