Jury Duty Done!

Ok. This case was an odd one. A civil insurance case. In the end we decided for the insurance company, but to a juror, we all hated that we had to decide that way.

Because the guy's house burned down, there was a claim put in to the insurance company. Not by him, by his agent. The plantiff attorneys tried to figure out who had put in the claim and were they authorized to put in a claim. Blah blah blah.

As a juror you are given certain information and other information might not be given to you because it is prejudicial to the case. For instance. The guy threatened the fire and police who came to put out the fire at his house. He was put on the ground by a 6'7" fireman and the captain, and held there until the PD could come and take possession of him. This was given to us, and there was a photo showing his hands which had been burned on the backs. There was slip of the tongue and someone called it a booking photo. This was struck from the record. But we still remembered it and made us wonder "what happened to the guy after the fire because he was nowhere to be found for weeks." His dad came to town and had power of attorney to do stuff. Presumeably because the guy was in jail or maybe committed. We still don't know. Maybe in alcohol treatment. We don't know. But there was a picture of 8 Absolut bottles in the trashcan...

There were fire and police investigators who said the fire was suspicious in nature. There were 3 cans of acelerant (a 5 gallon gas can with the lid wired open, a 1 gallon gas can downstairs, and paint thinner in another room.) There were pour patterns, an arson dog "hit" on 6 spots in the house. The fire was fast and hot, not like an electrical fire, which he said it was, would have been.

Also the homeowner policy that would have covered the fire had lapsed because he didn't pay the premium. There was an impound account set up to pay the mortgage and that account was supposed to pay the premium. But countrywide changed the terms and sent him a letter telling him he had to pay it. He didn't. Did he forget? Did he read the letter? We don't know.

There was a mind numbing assault on our brains as the defense and plantiff showed the same documents to us over and over. To ask the same questions over and over of the different witnesses. The plantiff attorney had a strange tendency to ask witnesses questions like "did you know there was this or this in the house?" When there would be no way for the witness to know any of this information. So what did it do? Pissed off and bored the audience, which, for all intents and purposes, we were. Lose the audience, lose the case.

I spoke briefly with the defense attorneys. They wanted to know what worked and what didn't. I wasn't going to talk to them, but did. There were things I had in my background I couldn't share in the jury room, but never had to because we ended the trial with 2 questions. Things about the arson dogs. I have a good friend who is a deputy in San Diego. He had drug dogs for years. Because I knew him I knew how the dogs were trained, and how they work, and how well they do their jobs. To tell me the dog is wrong is not going to fly with me.

I'm glad it's over. I don't want to ever do jury duty again. I'm going to have

"FUCKING GUILTY!!!"

tattooed to my forehead. If called for jury duty, they won't ask what the tattoo is about they will just dismiss me out of hand. Am I fucking guilty, is the palintiff? They won't know, but just having me in the jury box would look bad.