Every person I know hates getting that jury duty summons in the mail. Not me, oh no. I look forward to opening the mailbox and seeing that little summons. Yep, I'm weird like that.
I remember when I got my first summons. It was 1997 and I was working at Lucky's in Moorpark. One of the cashiers had gotten a summons for the same period but a different courthouse. Every day we called after 5pm to find out if we would be reporting. I was 19 1/2 and completely clueless. D would get a summons every month but never opened them. I was so jealous!! The cashier ended up getting called for service but not me. Oh well, I'll just wait a year!
Or two ... or five ... or wait a second! EIGHT years?!?! Yup, my second summons came in 2005, meanwhile all sorts of angry peeps were getting summons yearly. This time my group was called and I made it to the courthouse. I sat around for what seemed like hours, enjoying the first morning break and lunch before hearing my name called. I was picked!!!! Well, I was only picked for selection. Sheesh. I made my way to the courtroom with about 50 other people, only to be dismissed because it would have been a financial burden. No way I could take 2 weeks from work as an escrow assistant. Back down to the jury pool to wait and see. Afternoon break and then the announcement "You are now dismissed. We thank you for your service". Great, now I wait another year.
Or two ... or six. I really don't like waiting. I never realized that being called for jury duty was pulled from DMV and voter records. Well no wonder I wasn't getting called!! The records were all jumbled, right? No. I was married in 2005 and changed my name right away but I was still getting voting info with my maiden name. Now that I think about it, they must not really use the DMV records because my summons came in my maiden name, hmmm ...
Well, my dream of jury duty came true! Last week I served my day (instead of calling daily, I just picked a day to serve AWESOME) and was picked for selection right after a lovely long lunch. Fortunately, my place of employment pays for jury duty so I had no real excuse not to sit on a jury if selected. The judge introduced the parties to us, gave a brief statement of the case/charges and a rough estimate of time. This was Thursday, we'd be done by Tuesday. I could totally handle that. The rest of the afternoon was spent listening to people give their reasons why they couldn't sit on a jury - financial burdens, full time students, care providers. Here they were, doing everything to get out of it while I was sitting there, secretly hoping my name would be picked!
During the jury selection process, even if a jury has not been selected by the end of the one day you are to "serve", you still come back until the judge has dismissed you. What?! Are you telling me that I get to come back THIS YEAR? GET OUT! hahaha Yeah, I came back - the next day, my one and only day of Spring Break. Whatever, I was in selection!!! I ended up getting selected as an alternate juror, which in my eyes is a sweet ass deal because you hear all of the testimony, see the evidence and then don't have the pressure of coming up with a verdict. Sign me up!! So jury selection was over after one full day and 2 hours the day before. The judge admonished us "can' take about the case to anyone, not even each other" for the weekend and we were to report on Monday. You got it!!
The case I was selected for was pretty simple. The defendant plead not guilty to two charges: 1st charge driving under the influence, 2nd charge driving with a BAC of .08. Monday we heard from two witnesses - the arresting officer and the forensic lab analyst "expert witness". The defendant didn't testify and no one testified on his behalf. After a full day of opening statements, testimony, cross examination and closing arguments, the district attorney asked the court to dismiss the alternate jurors since the jury would be deliberating the next morning. That was fine with me, since I can't go deliberate why show up? So I served my three days of jury duty and after lunch, the courtroom bailiff phoned in the verdict - awesome!
From the testimony (now that I am no longer admonished, I can spill my beans!!), I gathered that the defendant was driving home from a downtown bar in the early morning after celebrating St Patrick's Day. The officer stated the defendant entered the freeway at a high speed, weaved in and out of traffic lanes, was breaking erratically and maintained a 82 mph speed. She felt he was impaired and pulled him over, conducting 4 field sobriety tests and arresting him after he declined the breathalyzer. Apparently you don't have to take that test but they will arrest you. He opted for the blood sample. His BAC was .088 which is of course, above the legal limit of 0.08, even though they don't use that 3rd digit so he was just at the legal level. The forensic lab has this formula that will show what the BAC was at the time of being pulled over - his was 0.98. He didn't technically fail all four FST's but he was DUI, obviously. The jury found him guilty on both counts.
So my jury duty is over. And now I wait for a year ... or three ...
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