Weird Jury Duty

I had jury duty last week at my local municipal courthouse. I've never been called for municipal jury duty and was intrigued - but irritated. Who wants to serve jury duty? Not me.

I did get picked - which surprises me. Usually I am stricken from the pool because of my profession.

The trial was for a speeding ticket. Ironically, I am currently on probation for THE SAME EXACT TRANSGRESSION!! I was sitting on the jury and dutifully listening to the defendant questioning the police officer. As I was listening, I realized - slowly - that the location of the policeman was the same place I got my ticket.

I panicked and felt awful. I didn't want to effect the other jurors who had been selected along with me. I asked the judge if I could tell her something. She told me that I had to talk to the bailiff. The bailiff told me to write down what I had to say. He gave it to the judge and she said that it wasn't a problem.

We listened to the case, deliberated, and found him guilty.

The thing is, I remember being very upset at getting a ticket at that location. I felt like the policeman was waiting at the end of the off ramp to nail me with a ticket. After looking at the location later, I realized that the ramp ended much sooner than I had thought and I really did need to be slowing down by the time I got near to where the cop was waiting.

So I hired a lawyer and paid the ticket.

But this guy didn't and I was a little upset at him for wasting my time, the courts time, the policeman's time, and all the other jurors time with a jury trial.

I'm just glad that I didn't fight my ticket.

After we found the guy guilty and the foreman signed the declaration, I then shared with the rest of the jurors what had happened - 'cause I couldn't share with them before. The one question I got was, "so you paid the ticket?" I told him yes. He was visibly ticked off towards the defendant.