I tossed the letter in the "get to it later" pile and went about my business.
A few days later I though I'd better check it. I read it and was remembering what Emily' told me in the past of how it works. Upon closer inspection I saw it was "Grand Jury" duty! What the hell is that? Emily laughed. I always envisioned Grand Jury duty being a room full of judges deciding on cases. Boy was I wrong.
I did a search on the internet & found a few articles about it. One written fairly recently in the Akron Beacon journal about another juror' experience. It was insightful and answered a few questions for me.
I tried to get out of it via my boss and HR at work. No luck. I'm stuck with this. Someone said I might be able to get out of it if I tell the judge I personally know 4 Akron cops. Figured it couldn't hurt.
My summons was for July 5th, 2017, 8:30am in the Summit County Courthouse.
I showed up with the names of all the Akron police I know memorized ready to walk out of the court room and work from home the rest of the day.
...It didn't go that way...at all!
I went into a room with about 200 other people, gave the lady at the desk my name and she handed me a sticker. I was juror #4. "Ha! #4...that's my lucky number!!" I sat down in the overly crowded room and waited for 8:30am to arrive.
They were rather prompt and my experience started at about 8:34am. "Everyone I gave a sticker to, please follow me. You are grand jurors." About 75% of the room stood up and we all filed out. Good grief...I felt like I was back in the Navy for some reason.
They put us in numerical order outside the tiny room and we "marched" to a court room. I will say this. The people that were organizing us and showing us to the court room were very, very nice and went out of their way to already accommodate us. Offering elevators, stairs, showing us bathrooms and drinking fountains.
They led us into the courtroom and since I was a low number (#4) I sat in the jury box. The others, beyond #14 (I think) were instructed to sit in the rest of the seats in the courtroom.
We were sworn in and told to be seated.
Introductions were made from the people in the courtroom and they explained that the Grand Jury was a high honor and our "stint" (as I called it) was going to be 9 weeks.
"9 WEEKS!?!?!" I thought to myself?? Gahhhhh!!! Well hopefully I won't be selected.
The judge went through her speech asking anyone if they had letters from their employers excusing them from jury duty. Not me, unfortunately.
I honestly forgot what happened after that. I think I zoned out. Eventually she asked if there was anyone that knew anyone in the judicial system. I raised my hand, "I know 3 Akron cop....errr..Police Officers and a 4th one will be married into the family by month' end." I told her. I was expecting to be excused at that point when one of the prosecuting attorneys, who I later, come to very much respect asked me, "In knowing them will your decisions be biased at all?". Everyone was staring at me! I thought a moment, "Gahh...lawyer double-talk!! He's got me up against the ropes!! Do I plead the 5th? Do I lawyer up? Do I break down and cry?". I answered honestly, "No, I don't think so. I think I'll be fine." My only ace in the hole & it didn't work. Crap! They moved on.
There were still about 75+ people in the courtroom.
"Maybe with so many they'll ask for volunteers with the lot that is left?"
The selection process went on for about another 45 minutes or so. The judge and attorneys had a number of side-bars looking over the courtroom and making decisions.
Finally the judge started counting heads left in the jury box. There were about 7 of us left in the jury box including me. She pointed at the next 8 people in the seats next to the jury box and told those people to move into the jury box.
Once it filled up she held up her left arm and divided the jury box from the rest of the courtroom.
"Everyone outside the jury box, you're excused. Thank you for your time."
"CRAP!" I muttered under my breath. Juror #5 looked at me. "I really didn't want to be here." I told him. He smiled and just shrugged.
I think I zoned out again as I watched the lucky "non"-jurors file out. Most were smiling. Wish I was smiling, I thought.
After the courtroom was cleared they escorted us to the Grand Jury room. My new place of my civic duty for the next 9 weeks.
The Grand Jury room had its own room, its own sign above the door and next to it, its own waiting room, magazines and toys. "TOYS?" I didn't understand that aspect at all, at least not then. That understanding came later.
We went into the Grand Jury private room. The tables in there were "L" shaped. 6 seats on each side. There was a tv on the wall, a chalkboard which had our "Estimated dismissal times" written on it already for the next few days.
I sat down at juror #4' seat and opened the folder in front of me to start reading the pamphlets and fliers that were in there.
A few minutes later I was asked by the PA's (prosecuting attorneys) if I could switch with juror #3. They told me that juror #3 would have to know how to operate a digital recorder in case juror #2 (the Deputy foreman) wasn't in. I said, "Sure...why not?". They thanked me many, many times as if I just made a huge decision in their lives. So I became juror #3. Below is a view from where I sat for the past 9 weeks. The table to the right is where the Prosecuting Attorney' sat and the table directly across from me is where those giving testimony sat. This was usually Police Officers, Detectives, victims, witnesses, Parole Officers, etc.
They had coffee for us, which they did every morning. Not great coffee...but free coffee nonetheless. I never snub my nose at free coffee.
I won't bore you minute details of what happened next. In a nutshell, that day, July 5th, 2017, I started learning more about the law and would continue to learn more about the law then I learned my whole life prior to that. Don't ask me to quote things or what the difference is in "this" and "that"...that's what Google is for. But needless to say, I became a little wiser to our judicial system.
Next episode...the process of indicting a "Defendent"....
1 comment:
Interesting......I've never known how this aspect of our judicial system works (other than TV, of course). Keep the info coming!!
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