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Jury Duty – Or How I Nearly Served On a Jury For a Multiple Rape & Sexual Abuse Case

By

On August 2, 2012

In Introspection

This was originally written May 21, 2012. I wrote a lot of notes into a paper journal I’ve since lost. Thankfully, I typed up the notes before I lost it and this has sat in my drafts folder and got overlooked until today.

I got called into Jury Duty today. I was juror number 29 of the 376 people who were called in today. Today was mostly a blur and I wrote some notes in a notepad as I was sitting in the courtroom being selected (or ultimately not selected) for service as a juror on this criminal trial.

It was a long day, that was for sure. From what I remember, I parked around 8am and found my way through the rain to the Judicial Center around 8:10 or so and got through security and up to the 4th floor where the Jury Lounge was.

I was delighted to see the room was not completely full and the chairs were spaced well apart so my knees would not be bumping up against the person in front of me. There were some power plugs and wi-fi was available. There were vending machines for some much-needed caffeine in the back of the room and there was a space for laptops so people could work on tables and not have to sit with their computers on their laps.

The entire time I was there, we were thanked for our service and our patience and they understand how coming to jury duty is a big inconvenience for all of us and takes us away from our jobs and lives and daily schedules.

We sat in the room until around 10am when we were called in a large batch to the criminal trial juror selection. This lasted until nearly 1pm. I understand why jury selection takes so long.

There were a series of questions asked of us including:
* If we knew the accused, legal teams, judge, or anyone on the perspective witness list.
* If English is your Second Language, do you feel you’d have any problems understanding the proceedings?
* Do you have any formal legal training or have you or your direct family work in law-enforcement or legal positions?
* There was a couple of questions about repressed memories
* There were questions about if we felt we could render an impartial decision based on the case at hand, which was a multiple rape and sexual abuse case.

There were many more questions, some which required a simple conversation between the judge and juror and others which required a trip to the bench, surrounded by the various lawyers for the sake of privacy.

I was nearly selected for the jury.
I was seated in the jury box, I was going to be Juror number 7. I was in the chair, I had my number Juror 29 called and both the prosecution and defense had replied to “Seat the Juror” which means they didn’t object. So there I was, as I watched others selected to my right and left be excused, mostly by the defense, I was readying myself for the trial.

I was preparing myself for a trial which was scheduled to last 6 days. I was readying myself to figure out the work situation and how I would be paid and how I would file my time sheet… And most importantly, how I was about to be bombarded with 6 days of testimony and evidence about the rape and sexual abuse of two young girls back in the late 70s before I was even born.

Then, for reasons beyond my knowledge, the prosecution asked that Juror 29 be excused. And with that, the judge said, Thank you Juror 29 for your service. Please gather your belongings and check in with the Jury Office.

And that was it. My short time as a juror was over. It was exciting and nerve-wracking. I will never know why the prosecution decided to let me go. The only information they had on me was my age, address, vocation, and obviously my race and my physical characteristics. I don’t know what they saw which apparently they thought would work against them, or for the defense, or maybe they were just trying to get to someone further down the line they liked better.

I will never know and I am going to stop thinking about it after today. But all in all, it was a long but good day. It was really interesting to see how the jury selection process worked. It was interesting to see how the trials are setup and how jurors are selected.

It is a very important process that deserves the time and attention paid to it.
It did strike me as interesting that the accused was present in the court room with his defense team. I don’t know what I expected but all the potential jurors got to see him and I imagine that was part of what the legal teams were looking for as they called the roll and went through the series of questions.

Now on to my random notes from the day…

  • Stipend is $15 per day and $50 per day for the 6th day or a trial and longer.
    I had already done the math that I might receive $125 for my 6-day trial service, if I had been selected.

  • Bring a paper book or a magazine for sitting in the court room. Electronics are allowed in the jury lounge but not in the court room so a book would have been nice as I waited for the various people to approach the bench to answer the selection of questions.

  • Eat a good breakfast. The summons read that I was to appear in the jury room no later than 8:30am and by the time I was finished, it was 1pm. We were given a couple breaks during the morning wait and even during the questions in the court room we had the choice to use the restroom or slip our to the water fountains but it was still a long day and I don’t know how much longer it would have been if I had been selected and kept on the jury. It’s so much easier to concentrate when your stomach is not growling.

  • Pack a snack or a drink to keep in the lounge since I was called early in the day but there’s the chance I would have sat in that room from 8:30 until 4:30 with an hour break for lunch around noon. It would have been nice to have some snacks or a soda to sip on as I passed the hours.

  • Allow at least 15 minutes to get through security. I was there a little early and I am glad for it. They tell you to allow time for security but there was only one entrance and one set of X-Ray Scanner and Metal Detector so even the 20 or so people who were there, it took awhile to process everyone.

  • Wear pants that don’t require a belt to stay up. I wear a belt with my pants and I had to remove it as part of the security screening and send it through the metal detector. My pants were fine but it would be embarrassing to have to hold my pants up and walk through security.

  • Bring non-noise-canceling headphones. I was enjoying a podcast this morning in the jury lounge but I needed to make sure I heard the announcement when we were going through orientation and being called out to report to a court room. The audio made the morning wait far more pleasant but I didn’t want to risk missing anything. I used the standard white Apple ear buds and they worked just fine.

  • 376 people were summoned to be perspective jurors today and only around 200-250 people showed up. It was interesting how many people did not report to the court house. There are all sorts of reasons but it means a lot more of us were called out to this criminal trial to get the large pool they needed to choose from.

  • I opted not to bring a bag. I just had my umbrella, iPad and a Mountain Dew in my hands this morning. It would have made it a little easier to pick up and move from the lounge to the court room and back and then to the car with a bag. I would have had less to carry and somewhere to place some snacks or a drink instead of carrying it. My pockets were full and I had to empty them to go through the security line as well which is always a pain.

  • I should have brought a phone charger. I was down to about 50% battery when I was called into the court room at 10 or 10:30 when I had to turn the phone off. But if I had sat in the lounge all day, I would have had a dead phone and been wishing for a charger for the afternoon.

All in all, it was an eye-opening and exciting day. I was sort of jealous of the high numbered people who I thought had nearly no chance at being selected. But I was also happy with my low number of 29 because I thought I might get to serve on a jury which would have been really interesting.

And I almost got my chance.
Almost…

Techo Chamber

By

On July 31, 2012

In Observations

Round and round we go.
There are Apple rumors. There’s a new version of Windows on the horizon. There’s plenty of product announcements being debated and compared to products which don’t yet exist.
There’s Microsoft, Google, Apple and Android camps all clamping at each other. Linux is sitting on the sidelines slowly snaking its way into our phones and cars. Biding its time like a Trojan Horse.

Everyone has an opinion and is an expert on everything.

There are scholars on how to make software and what the business model should be. There is debate over the importance of a business model. There are those out there doing the work and keeping their mouths shut.

They are often overlooked and out shouted by the technology echo chamber. There is signal and there is noise. There is so much noise it is often hard to find the signal.

A phone for everyone

By

On July 27, 2012

In Observations

What phone should I buy? That’s how it always starts. The question is always followed by, should I buy the new iPhone?
Should I buy the latest Android Phone Of The Week? I heard the new iPhone is going to have… and come out…

I get these questions a lot since I work in IT, I use Apple products and I am seen as the computer guy to a group of friends and acquaintances. They’re always looking for a short answer. Buy the iPhone. Wait for the new iPhone. Buy the Samsung Galaxy Whatever. They want a recommendation, one that’s hard to offer.

Everyone wants a phone for something different.

Some people talk on their phones all day everyday. To them a stellar battery life and pristine call quality are vital. Other people use their phones as pocket-sized media players. They want movies and music at their finger tips from the cloud or locally so they want great connectivity and larger storage sizes. There are others who use their phones as cameras. They shoot, edit and share video and photos with friends and the world so they’ll want a great camera and huge storage.

Everyone has different needs so recommending something to someone is harder than saying go buy this.

A recommendation comes with information. Otherwise you’re guessing.

I don’t recommend buying a rumor! Stop shopping for what Apple’s new phone might be and shop for something you can actually buy.

Mountain Lion roars to life

By

On July 25, 2012

In Observations

Mac OS X Mountain Lion was released earlier today.

It’s being covered everywhere on the internet by people far smarter than I.

The Canonical John Siracusa review, clocking in at 24 pages and available in many forms. Here’s what the man himself has to say about it.

Marco Arment wrote a review of Siracusa’s review and his history of reviews.

Pat Dryburgh has released a video preparing for the 24 page review.

The crew over at MacStories have written the book on it. They’re donating 30% of the proceeds to charity. Even if you don’t buy the book, the MacStories team has good coverage and is one of the most trusted names in Mac news for their integrity and professionalism.

David Chartier has a good roundup of coverage from all over the place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my love for Instapaper for reading things later. It’s available for iPhone, iPad, select Android devices and of course, on the web.

How to shop for a new car

By

On July 23, 2012

In Observations

When I say “new car” I mean new-to-me. I would never buy a new car. They’re far too expensive and drop a ton of value the moment I leave the lot. New cars makes no sense to me.

Last Thursday, as I was driving from home to on one of the hottest days of the year in my car with no air conditioning, it started to smoke. Not too much but enough to be concerning.

I was on the beltway with no phone1, no air conditioning and a car that was starting to have problems. I nursed the car home, as it wouldn’t go any faster than 40 mph. But it wasn’t until I made it to the hill I live on did I see just how bad it was. The car would barely accelerate past 20 mph. I barely made it up the hill and into a parking space.

After a few hours of letting it cool down and I tried to move it to a new space to avoid a weekend paving project, the car would not shift into gear at all.

No reverse. No drive. No first. Nothing.

I rolled it down the sloping lot to a freshly paved space to avoid it getting towed the next day while the paving continued. Now, it was time for a big decision.

Repair or Buy?

I first thought about repairing the car. I looked at AAA rates and where I could get it towed. Then how much the repair might be, since I suspected it was the transmission or something else major. It looked to be well over $1,000 and as much as $3500. The car wasn’t worth that.

My wife and I talked it over since it already didn’t have air conditioning2, had over 140,000 miles on it and wasn’t in the best physical condition it was time to find another car.

A Word of Warning

I read through Get Rich Slowly’s Reader Story about car hunting. From there, I found Motley Fool’s Car Buying Guide which also offered a ton of great information.

Dealers love to call and email you endlessly. They love to try to up sell you and send you marketing materials. I’m still hearing back nearly four days later about cars I’ve already declined or cars they told me were sold already.

Before you start contacting anyone, setup a new email address and if possible, a Google Voice phone number or something similar. You will get calls from dealers or associates from other dealerships all trying to win your business. Even after you’ve told them you already made a purchase.

The hunt begins

Where to start? Since I am tall (6’5″), I am limited in what I can drive. I had a 2001 Ford Taurus since I fit into it and could drive it comfortably. However, after 8 years of driving the same car, I was ready for a change.

Since we had talked about getting an SUV when my car did finally die, we looked into those as well as other sedans to see what was out there and what we could afford.

We wanted a car that could last us at least five years since even with the down payment we had and I’d get no trade-in value for my car, we’d need a longer term loan. We had a couple of guidelines when we started looking.

  • Under 80,000 miles, ideally closer to 60,000
  • Price around $10,000, with a down payment of $2000 – $4000
  • Clean Carfax report
  • Good mileage
  • Good safety rating

With this in mind, we started looking.

Carmax – Lots of variety, high prices

We visited a local Carmax. I like Carmax because they have a huge variety of cars and each car has a lockbox on it so the salesman has access to every key to every car on the lot. This makes it easy to perform a series of sit tests.

Because of my height, I have a series of tests I performed in each car.

  • Can I comfortably get in and out of the car?
  • Is it tall enough? Does my head hit the roof?
  • Do I have enough leg room or are my legs splayed out around the steering wheel?
  • Does it have an adjustable steering wheel?
  • When the wheel is adjusted to where I need it, does it obstruct my view of the instruments?
  • Is it comfortable to sit in? Does anything dig into or rub against my leg from the dashboard?
  • Is the sear adjustable? Can I make it lower or move it back far enough to fit my long legs?
  • Do I feel confined by the center console. Is it comfortable to reach into when I’m in the driver’s seat?

These are the things I look for when I sit in a car and decide if it’s something I’m interested in. You wouldn’t believe the number of SUVs so short my head rests on the roof or instrument panels that jut out impeding my knees, sharp edges that dig into my legs or the amount of contortion needed to enter and leave the vehicle.

When I look at a car, I consider a lot of things before I even start the engine and take it for a drive. I need to not be annoyed by minor things since I will be driving the car every single day.

Incidentally, we never had the intention of buying from Carmax because their prices were much too high. It didn’t help that our salesman was terrible. He wandered away from us, steering us towards expensive luxury vehicles. He didn’t listen to our questions or requests to see certain cars. More than a few times we had to wait at a car we wanted to see until he came back from whatever other vehicles he wanted to show us.

Even if we wanted to buy something, I would not have bought that day because the salesman was so bad. It is worth noting I have had positive experiences with Carmax before. The last time I looked, I was in Richmond and had a stellar salesman who was attentive to my questions and really helped me choose the right make and model of vehicle for me.

Carmax served its purpose

Carmax’s purpose was to allow me to see what was out there and what I liked and it served that purpose admirably. I had an idea where to start looking elsewhere. With so many cars on the market, it’s important to narrow the choices. We left with five choices in mind.

Contestants

In the beginning, I was resistant to getting an SUV despite the advantages in poor weather and increased storage capacity. I wanted another car because I liked driving them.

However, after looking at the smaller SUVs, I was warming to the idea and really liked some of them.

We had narrowed the list of desirable cars to:

  • Nissan Murano
  • Ford Escape
  • Ford Explorer
  • Honda CR-V
  • Dodge Charger

After combing Craigslist, Cars.com3, and AutoTrader.com, we saw there were a lot of user dealerships down in Manassas, Virginia so we hopped in the car and took a ride down there to look in person.

We visited three places and I test drove a Nissan Murano, Ford Explorer and looked at a couple other SUVs in the same class.

I really liked the Murano. It was a little nicer than the others. It had a massive dashboard area where I could set something without it sliding around. I liked how it rode and handled. It had massive amounts of room but wasn’t too big. It had pretty good gas mileage.

The Explorer was just too big. We don’t need a third row of seats and it rode like a truck, not a car.

The Ford Escape was nice but prices were on par with the Murano which and the Murano was a little more luxurious

The Honda CR-V was surprisingly expensive. I had expected them to be more affordable. They were as expensive as the Muranos but not as fun to drive or nice inside.

The Dodge Charger was more of a pipe dream. I’ve always liked the look of them but couldn’t find any that were within our price range. Except one offered by a Craigslist scammer.

Craigslist Scams

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember that.

We saw a listing for a 2006 Dodge Charger and emailed about it since the price was fairly low but not suspiciously low.

The reply we received was this (emphasis is mine),

I’ve received your email regarding the 2006 Dodge Charger RT with 52,882 miles on it, Sedan, Automatic, Gasoline, Engine: 5.7L V8 SFI. The car is still for sale and my asking price is $3300. It is a 2006 model loaded with everything.You have here the VIN # to see that everything is like I said : VIN REMOVED. The car is very well maintained and it has just been completely serviced. The engine runs very good and the automatic transmission shifts perfectly.The car is in perfect condition with clear title,no accidents, no liens or loans.
I’m an oceanographer and I’m on sea at this moment, so I left the car in Perkins OK, at the shipping company, it’s already packed and waiting to be shipped anywhere.
Here are some pictures with the car: LINK REMOVED
Let me know if you are still interested.
Regards,
Jennifer Bradley

We received a couple different email replies signed by different names from different oceanographers around the country to various car ads.

So either there was a huge number of oceanographers trying to sell cars on Craigslist, or these are all scams. Hint: Craigslist’s Car Sales page comes with a warning that includes, Offers to ship a vehicle are virtually 100% fraudulent.

More car hunting

The test drives helped solidify my choice of cars and I wanted the Nissan Murano. The CR-Vs were too expensive for what I felt wasn’t as nice a car. The Chargers were too expensive and the Ford Escapes were about the same price as the Muranos from the same year.

Edmunds – Cars for Dummies

Now it was time to go to Edmunds.com which I found from the Get Rich Slowly article. The site was a godsend since I don’t know much about cars.

It has fantastic reviews of cars from all makes, models and years and it’s super easy to use from a mobile phone since the URL is very easy.

www.edmunds.com/Make/Model/Year

For instance, to look at a 2006 Nissan Murano, I typed in http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/murano/2006. If I want the 2005 model, change the 2006 to 2005.

On the main page, they give the fuel economy, “What Edmunds Says”, a short review of the vehicle, and their pros and cons. It’s a great way to get a 30 second overview of a vehicle and helped steer us away from certain years where the car had maintenance problems, or certain models that rode harshly.

The site also offers safety, reliability, features, etc for the vehicles. It has everything you would want to know about a car before making a purchase.

Mission for Murano

The Nissan Murano had won out as the top choice for a vehicle. Now it was time to find one. Back to Craigslist we went, combing the headlines and refreshing to see if anything new was listed.

The first email was never returned a day later so we called and the number was disconnected.

The second car was already sold by the time we found it.

The third try was met with success. I called the number and spoke to the owner we agreed to meet on a rainy Saturday evening about 20 minutes away.

Success?

So my wife and I jumped in her car and met the owners who had a beautiful Burgundy 2006 Nissan Murano. The car looked to be in great condition and talked about it for a bit including why they were looking to sell the car.

The seller let us take it on a test drive and it was wonderful. The ride was smooth. The engine sounded good and the acceleration was smooth and braking firm and responsive. Even on the wet roads it was a good ride and the lights and wipers did their job admirably. The car had 60,000 or so miles on it and the owner wanted $11,000 even for it.

A little higher than we wanted to spend but the car was in great shape and had lower miles that we had expected to find. It looks like a great deal.

Now came the most important part.

We asked for the VIN number to run a Carfax report. I told the owner if the Carfax report was clean, I would call him the next day to arrange the sale of the car.

We shook hands and parted ways. Driving home, we were giddy. We had found a great looking car for a good price. When we got home, I plugged the VIN into Carfax expecting to be delighted…

And my heart sank.

Warning!

Always check Carfax, Always!

I had never seen a big red exclamation point on a Carfax report before. So I read on.

The car had severe damage from an accident in New York some years before. The car had been in an accident again and declared a total loss / salvage and was issued a salvage title.4

The car wasn’t worth the risk.

We quickly located two more 2006 Muranos for a little more money but both from local dealerships with free, clean Carfax reports. It was Sunday afternoon so we called and confirmed they were open and off we went.

We took a ride to the first and wanted to look at one they had available. We arrived and told the first person to pounce on us, we had seen the car on their website and noted the price we had seen it advertised for and wanted to know if they still had it.

He said he knew exactly what car we were talking about and praised it and our choice.

The car was there and Burgundy. It also looked to be in great shape. We took it for a test drive and it rode as smoothly as our the one from the previous night. It was smooth, responsive and had been meticulously cleaned and had some minor repairs done by the dealership.

It was in great shape and had around 65,000 miles on it. We talked it over and decided we wanted it. The second Murano was a 2003 with considerably more miles on it so we felt this was a better deal.

We told the salesman we wanted the car and we started the paperwork. There is a lot of paperwork.

We spent just under $12,500 for the car plus the tax, tags, title and other expensive T-words. I feel good about the purchase. We are going to take it on our upcoming vacation which should be a good road test for it and if anything does go wrong, it’s still covered under the limited-time warranty.

  1. As I had left mine at home when I raced out the door to try to drive into some of the worst traffic in the US and back in time for my Batman movie marathon. Needless to say, I missed the first movie. ↩

  2. Which I had just talked about getting repaired a day earlier. ↩

  3. The Washington Post uses them for their car classified ads. ↩

  4. This is when I learned New York state won’t issue a title for s salvaged car to the previous owners had moved it to Maryland which would apparently issue a title for it. ↩

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