Jury Duty... The sad reality.

I went in with an open mind.

I got there too early and the doors were still locked so I waited. Then I waited again for them to open the court room doors. We filled out some paperwork; then waited. They had us watch a movie about Jury Duty, then waited. Finaly they split the group up into 2 smaller groups. Numbers 1-49 went to the north court while the rest remained in the south court.

I was lucky number 13. I was called first. I thought it was odd that the defendant sits in the courtroom while the Jury was picked. So, the Judge reads off the charges, 11 total:

2 counts sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1st.

2 counts sexual misconduct with a minor in the 2nd.

2 counts endangering the welfare of a minor in the 1st.

2 counts endangering the welfare of a minor in the 2nd.

1 count of tampering or threating a witness

-- At this point, I was still ok. I could still be fair. Girl has a fake ID at a bar. "Hey you never know", I thought to myself as they read of the above charges but they got to the final charge.

2 counts of incest.

--Shit--

I grimaced, some people gasped. Durring the selection process, we did find out that it was the defandant's daughter. They called 6 out of the 14 called up. Thank goodness one was not me. They sent me over to the other courtroom.

The charges there were 2 counts of assualt and 1 of endangering the welfare of a minor. They told us there was no witness and the victim could not testify because they were 14months old. I did not even get called up for this one because they filled the requirements for a jury first.

One guy that worked for a different area trucking company was walking out to the parking lot with me. We were talking about the cases some. We both agreed that neither would be a good experience. It did not occur to me until he mentioned it but he asked me, " You do understand what the differance between Sexual Misconduct and Rape is, right"?

--Shit--