Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Here comes the judge

The title for this post is a reference to an old song by Shorty Long in 1968. Thats a long time ago. Almost as long is me not being called for jury duty. For the 27 years of my adult life I have never had a summons. Until a couple of weeks ago. No excuse was good enough for them so today I went through the long process of sitting around waiting with dozens of strangers in a form of reverse lotto, waiting to be called. Reverse because you don't want your number to come up. After being called on the first round and sitting through the 2.5 hour process of being asked if I could be fair and impartial in a second degree attempted murder trial, I was not picked. Whew! Back to the big room and the strangers for more waiting. Other groups came and went but not me. Finally released and got home in time to get ready to watch my daughter play viola in a school Orchestra concert. So not productive today. So just a sketch. Back to work tomorrow. Oh, and Dakota was incredible in the concert. Made the rest of the day fade away. :)

4 comments:

Royce Thrower said...

Thought for a sec that the "Here comes the judge" title was a Flip Wilson reference. :)

I went almost 30 years of never being called and then finally was...after I had just made a move and was ineligible. Still had to jump through the hoops to get excused even though I now lived over 5 hours away. Glad you missed the murder trial. Congrats to Dakota.

Brian Jones said...

Jury duty sucks hope you had a good book to read..at least the end of your day was a highlight!

Gene Gonzales said...

Royce - See I went back farther than Flip Wilson. I definitely dodge a bullet with jury duty. My wife reminded me that out in California, where we lived, jury duty is a two week deal. No matter what. Oy. Thanks for the congrats for Dakota, I will pass it along. :)

Brian - Yep, it sucked. But they like to point out that it is one of the most important things you can do as an American. While they give you 15.00/day if your employer doesn't pay you. And guess what? My employer (me) doesn't pay me while I am on jury duty. I wonder if the bailiffs and the court employees make 15.00/day? Hmmm.

Gary M. Peiffer said...

Gene,

Obviously, the parties involved did not know you are a talented artist, otherwise, they would have assigned you as the court room sketch artist for the duration of your duty!

Gary