Jury Duty

I failed at the Russian Roulette of call in jury duty last week. On the last day to call in I was picked to go into the court and do a day or a trial. That's the way it works here in LA.

They said they were only needing 2 juries that day. There were over 100 people there in the waiting room. The most exciting thing that happened in the waiting room was when the woman explaining the whole thing saw a cockroach moving on the brown carpet. I had seen it earlier. But since it wasn't bothering me I didn't see a reason to kill it. The woman at the mic stopped orientation and said she didn't do well with cockroaches. A female juror jumped up, pulled off her sandal, and went after the roach. He was mightily resilient but in the end he was squished.

I got called to go to a court room with 59 others. The judge sat us down and explained the civil case. A guy admitted to molesting a 15 year old girl. Immediately my heart turned to stone. It was civil suit where she was suing for damages and pain and suffering. I'm not going to be impartial. My first thought was, "Why is he not in jail?" Maybe he had been and he was now out and being sued. I don't know or care. I sat listening as the judge questioned the panel. I was not put in a chair but I can hosetly say I would not be impartial. There are some things you can suspend your prejudices, but for me that is not one of them.

The crazy thing is he was representing himself. That made me think of the old lawyer saying. Whoever represents himself has a fool for a client.

Hope the girl wins a lot of money.