Jury Duty – Day Two

Come back at 9:00 am means there is no close-by parking, so I have to park half way to Davis. It's rainy and cold and half the lot is a pond. I got here a little early to get through the security check and get into the court on time. I’m a little early, but there are lots of others milling around in the corridor. The court room is not open yet.

About 9:15 Scott the Bailiff comes out and tells us to come back around 10:00. I go get some coffee. Hang around looking at the people in the hall, wondering what their stories are.

Finally around 10:00 Scott comes out and tells us to listen up. He reads nine or ten names from a list and those people are dismissed. He doesn’t say why, but my bet is that they all work or worked for Mega-Mart at some time. The rest of us go back in, and the ones that were in the jury box yesterday go back to their assigned seats.

All of yesterday’s hardship cases are gone, in addition to the ones from this morning’s list, so there is a lot more room in the gallery. This courtroom is tiny. The Bailiff has a computer in front of him, and he is shopping online – looks like maybe Lands End. Today there are more people at the council tables. The attorneys don’t introduce them.

Finally the Judge comes out and we get started. After the pleasantries he asks again if there are any additional hardship cases as a result of the length of the trial or any other reason. One woman says she is sole support because her husband’s restaurant is closed right now. She is dismissed.

Now the judge asks the panel some questions based on their responses to the survey. He makes a few notes but doesn’t dismiss anybody. He's not giving that free pass away. He is a very straight faced guy, no way to tell what he might be thinking. Don’t play poker with this guy.

Next, the Plaintiff’s Attorney takes his turn. He starts with a little overview of the case. They are claiming sexual harassment, and the plaintiff is asking for damages in the seven figures (that’s like $9,000,000!). He is going to bring in psychologists and other experts. He wants us to know up front that the plaintiff (Marcy) has used illegal drugs, has had an abortion (she claims the Manager got her with child), and has been in jail. As he begins to question the panel individually, most of his questions revolve around whether the jurors can separate Marcy's lurid lifestyle that from the facts of the case and still be fair. He reminds us that if there is something we would rather not say in open court we can talk to the judge privately. He’s all business, but full of compassion and controlled outrage. The ends of his shirt collar poke up awkwardly as if he is too busy to find a collar bar in the morning. He should wear button-down shirts and he wouldn’t have that problem. But his hair is definitely well groomed.

During the questioning one guy is asked about his answer to a survey question, and his response is “I don’t read so good, so I answered as best I could.” There are at least two others who don’t speak so good the English too. There is a firefighter who says that he is a union member and couldn’t probably be fair to Mega-Mart given their anti-union policies. Another woman is an employee of the Elk Grove Police Department, and she insists that she would have a hard time being impartial to someone who had been in jail.

About 11:30 the Judge bids “counsel approach the bench” and they have a little huddle over to the side. I wonder if they are trying to figure out what they are going to do for lunch.

Oddly, right after this little sidebar, we break for lunch. I go down to K Street and have a pretty bad sandwich and read my book. We have two hours, and I walk around a little, but it’s still raining, and not very pleasant.

After lunch the union firefighter has been dismissed.

Now the Mega-Mart attorney begins questioning the panel. This guy is smarmy looking. Kind of tubby, with greasy hair, a bad suit and a very insincere way of trying to sound sincere. He tries to set everybody at ease by making a couple of bad quips. “When the Plaintiffs counsel says seven figures, we think he’s definitely asking too much, unless you count the two places after the decimal point” (chortle). He makes a little jab at K-Mart when someone mentions that store. Most of his questions seem designed to eliminate people who would be hostile to Mega-Mart. He tells us that he will show us what a fine upstanding guy the Defendant (Larry) is. He implies that Marcy is no better than she ought to be. He really reaches for an inference about the fact that her brother in law was in Reno on the same day that she was, which is the day that Marcy says Larry knocked her up. Hmmm….just hints of things to come. Both sides have mentioned oral sex, copulation, abortion, jail time, illegal drug use; this should be sordid.

Smarmy finishes his questioning, and they go out with the judge to confer on who will be cut. They’re back pretty quickly, and begin the round of peremptory challenges. The judge wants us to understand that being dismissed is not a reflection on anybody’s integrity. The People thank and dismiss the Elk Grove Police Department employee and she leaves smiling. The worst of the non-English speakers are dismissed. After the first round, they bring some more up, and everybody has to shift seats. Four more people are seated, some of them are thrown out, and then I get seated. They ask me some questions, and I answer truthfully, and they accept me as juror #14, an alternate. Everybody else gets to leave. Shit.

We are sworn in and admonished not to talk to anybody or to form any opinions. We can leave and come back at 9 am tomorrow.

Jury Duty – Day One

I have been summoned for Jury Duty. My right and duty. The foundation of the democratic system.

The courthouse is a security controlled access area. You have to line up to go through a metal detector and have your bags x rayed just like at an airport. But instead of being with a bunch of unwashed airline passengers, you are with a bunch of unwashed lowlifes. The TSA flunkies have morphed into armed Sheriffs. Jury people mingle with all the criminals at liberty, the attorneys (they wear suits) and the police (they wear guns). The line extends out the door and it is cold outside.

Once inside, you line up again to get into the jury assembly room. They have only called three groups for this morning (of a possible 15), but the line extends into the hall and all the way through two additional rooms before you get to the counter where you get checked in. They give you the Voir-Dire questionnaire, and you are told to fill it out while you wait. There aren’t enough chairs in the room. What chairs there are are set up like seats in an airport waiting area. There are also large screen TVs all over so that you can hear and see your indoctrination. The Voir-Dire asks a bunch of personal information about you, your family, where everyone works, and any criminal or police connections.

About 8:30 they call my name and I am sent to Department 38 on the fifth floor. The elevators are full to bursting, so I take the stairs up three flights. Between the 4th and the 5th floor people from my group start to come back. They aren’t ready for us until 9:00, so go back to the jury assembly area.

About 9:15 we are told to go back up, but when we get there we still can’t get into the room just yet. Finally around 9:30 the court clerk and the bailiff come out and we are about to begin. They call off 18 names from a randomized list of the people in the pool. This is the first cut, and they are seated in the jury box. The rest of us are asked to just take seats in the audience area.

We raise our right hands to swear that we will shut up and listen. Then we are told to sit. Thirty seconds later we are told to stand up as the Judge comes in. Then we are told to sit. There are no hymnals, but it reminds me of church. I don’t suppose we are going to have to pray though.

The Judge is very friendly. He introduces the attorneys and the parties to the suit and gives us all some general instructions about not talking with anybody else about the case, not investigating on our own. He tells us the case is a civil case -- a Mega-Mart employee against Mega-Mart and the Manager of Mega-Mart, claiming sexual harassment (I have cleverly disguised the name of this major retailer headquarted somewhere in the South). He lets us know that it’s going to take about 15 days He asks us about hardships, like does anybody have one that would make it impossible to serve on the jury for that long. About nine people raise their hands, and the bailiff gives them a questionnaire to describe their hardship. The rest of us get surveys that ask us about how we feel about damage awards, emotional distress, awards for emotional distress, do we know anybody in law enforcement, educational and work background, union membership, and can you be fair to Mega-Mart? Many of the questions are repetitions of the questions from the Voir-Dire. Once we complete the surveys we are told that we can leave and come back at nine the next morning. We give the survey and the Voir-Dire to the clerk on the way out.

The people with the hardship cases are asked to stay behind.

Outta here.