WaEx:
A 21-year-old man in Florida served 10 days in jail after he accidentally slept in and missed jury duty in a civil automotive accident negligence case.
Deandre Somerville was sentenced to 10 days in jail after he overslept for his first day of service as a juror at the West Palm Beach County courthouse in late August. Somerville said he woke up too late and missed his ride, so he headed straight to his job, where he works part-time as a recreational leader at a park not far from his home.
Three weeks later, police arrived at the home Somerville shares with his ailing grandfather and arrested him. “I should have called, and I own up to that,” Somerville said. “I made a mistake, but I didn’t know I would go to jail. They don’t tell you that if you miss jury duty you go to jail,” he said. “I don’t even have a criminal record.” He said that as he was being arrested, his grandfather encouraged him to “go in and be honest.”
He readily admitted to the judge that he had made a mistake by sleeping in and asserted that he “didn’t know the seriousness of it, to be honest.” Circuit Civil Judge John Kastrenakes had little sympathy and dressed Somerville down for his negligence and carelessness. The judge noted that Somerville’s absence caused the trial to be delayed by 45 minutes, and that he had been the only black person to be selected on that jury. more
SNIP: WTF does that even mean? The only Black Person? Why was his blackness that important in the case?
Causing a 45 minute delay gets you a 10 day sentence. Perfectly fair. Judge sounds like an a$$
10 days and now a criminal record and Killary the Kankle Klown walks free daily. This country is fucked up.
Something tells me that there is more to this story
“and that he had been the only black person to be selected on that jury.”
Racists judge? Only reason you were selected was because you were BLACK! So even in a civil duty setting, the black guy *ucked it up for everyone. If one doesn’t want to serve on jury duty, wear a political T-shirt and see how fast you’re removed from the jury pool. I’ve got the perfect one “If you don’t like my attitude, QUIT talking to me!”
When your notice arrives its clearly stated repeatedly how important it is to follow the instructions including what to do if you have a problem getting there. Again, they stress the importance of compliance.
He blew it off and didn’t bother to even call them to tell them, so he paid the price.
Now he can tell his friends he was given an expensive education!
Conscription has no place in the land of the free.
I was supposed to go to court today, but then I got high.🤷🏿♂️
People might disagree, but if you registered to vote
(and thereby are listed in the jury pool)you are
claiming your rights as a citizen. With these rights
come responsibilities.
If people got 10 days for screwing up the jury system
with a BS excuse as a regular punishment it would stop.
He had jurors being picked from a large number of
waiting prospectives, witnesses, defendant, plaintiff
and lawers all sitting on their hands for most of an
hour and many missing a days pay to be there. How many
man hours is that especially if the case could not be
wrapped up because of the lost time and had to run
an extra day because he didn’t get out of bed?
Don’t forget the $400.00 per hour lawers billing
that had to be paid for each attorney.
And no I don’t much like lawers or judges.
“and that he had been the only black person to be selected on that jury.”
and, probably, the only jury on ‘black time’.
The first time I was selected for jury duty, I told them I was the only person available for my toddler. They let me go.
The second time I was selected for jury duty, I totally forgot about it. So I called the next day and they said they didn’t need me. I wouldn’t have called, but I did remember hearing about it being an offense of some sort for not going or replying to the summons.
Mama didn’t wake me up.
And yet shoplifters are given a slap on the hand and don’t even have to appear in court.
I told them I had a divorce hearing the next day, I did really, and I haven’t heard from them since (10 plus yrs). Not bragging, God.
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Palm Beach County.”
Did he show up wearing a MAGA hat?
Good. Everybody waiting for the asshole. Expensive lawyers, Judge and his staff and all the jurors. Praise to this judge!!!
Last time I had jury duty it paid , if I remember correctly, $13 a day plus milage. I was out roughly $150 each day compared to my real job. I go out of my way to avoid jury duty. If it’s a criminal trial I start ranting about how the police shot and killed my unarmed female cousin (true story.) They always dismiss me.
Don’t they have alternate jurors for illness, etc?
Sounds like attention whore judge to me.
Jury duty sucks. Used to be if you didn’t get paid by your employer while doing jury duty, you could claim financial hardship. Not anymore. The people running the courts have no care or concern that people will struggle financially or use sick or vacation days to serve on a jury. These lazy, entitled government workers would scream bloody murder if they went without pay for a day or had to use vacation days.
You also used to be excused from jury duty if you were the primary caretaker for a child. Not anymore. Only breast feeding women are excused. At least that’s how it is where I live. When you report to jury duty you wait and wait for your group to be called. The chairs are uncomfortable and there aren’t enough of them, so some people sit on the floor. Prisoners at gitmo get treated better.
…When I was on jury duty the first time, I had NO idea how stupid it was. One case that pushed me over the edge was a drug possession one where we had the passenger with the drugs at his feet when the cops got them, two White guys in a Black neighborhood. The driver was being tried separately because each was blaming the other, with our guy saying the driver threw the drugs on his side. Ohio law at the time defined “Possession” as being in control of them, and “control” defined as them being in arm’s reach.
Simple, right?
First off, I was about the only White guy the prosecuter didn’t pick off at the voir dire. God knows why he kept me, or the old White woman, but since it was a White guy, he seemed to be going for folks that would be “comfortable” in Black neighborhoods and maybe don’t like Whitey going in for his drugs.
I hope the defense attorney was free, because it was the lamest case I’d ever seen. He practically ADMITTED his client’s crime, but thought he could save it with a bunch of “Walk a mile in his shoes” platitudes.
Nonetheless, my first trial, and I was eager to get in there, debate Law with smart fellow citizens in a jury room, and get expert legal guidence from a seasoned jurist.
God was I naïve.
After the phoned-in presentation on both sides, we went into a dank, smelly closet where I got to hear every person, in detail, discuss their kinks, grievences, personal predjudices, and opinions on how “shifty” the guy “looked”…in short everything but the CASE and the LAW.
…the Black folk seemed led by a guy who, true to the PA’s hope, said he didn’t see why the guy would be scared to get out if his buddy was doing illegal things, since HE felt safe in that neighborhood.
The old White ladies just didn’t want to convict ANYONE.
For ANY reason.
‘Cause it was mean.
I was still trying to pretend it was about, you know, the LAW, and talked the rest of the jury into at least getting those definitions you see above. This was pre-internet, so no smart phones, and no law books, either. We had to pass the judge a note, everybody had to traipse bach into the courtroom, and the bored judge answer the written question like he obviously thought such deep legal matters were beyond us, then back to the dungeon we went.
All this took an enormous amount of time.
The whole thing was pretty cut and dried, but the old ladiea didn’t give up until they threatened to keep US overnight.
Then off to the hoosegow he went.
The result was correct, but the conviction from most of the jurors was more predjudices and ennui than actual reasoned thought.
And that was just the FIRST one.
IN A THREE WEEK SUMMONS.
They just got stupider from there.
I got desperate to at least get kicked off the juries, first by trying to be subtle in carrying “Les Miserables” to the voir dire (didn’t work) to finally saying such incatious things to get kicked off that the LAST judge threatened ME with contempt for being too obvious.
They DID kick me off, though, for which I was grateful.
I was DONE.
My stupid tolerance, much higher when I was young, was far exceeded.
And just about every WORKING person was the same. The only folks happy to be there were bored retirees and crackheads digging the air conditioning and $20.00 jury pay.
…I did learn ONE thing, though.
NEVER, EVER put yourself in a position to be in FRONT of a jury.
They are simply absurd…
Probably about 8 years ago. I had the misfortune to serve jury duty, (first time ever).
It was relatively short, (thank GOD). After the testimony we jurors retired for deliberation.
I absolutely could NOT believe how ignorant the majority of jurors were.
I am not a leader but after listening to the others for only a few minutes I took it upon myself to take the lead, along with one other juror that seemed to have his head on straight.
Between the two of us we guided the rest into a conclusion that was very real and fair.
It was a real eye-opener for me.