As a civil servant, I don’t balk at jury duty like I use to.  For starters, my job with the City covers my pay when I’m serving, plus, I would hope if I ever find myself in trouble, or if I were to need to address a civil matter through the court process, that I would have an eager panel of jurors who were fair and impartial.  But more than that, I find the process utterly fascinating.

It was standing room only on Monday, the day I decided I would report (instead of calling day by day to see if I would be needed).  There were 108 cases pending.  The clerk assured us that 108 was below average and that a busy day would be over 200 cases pending.  My name was included in the first group of 70 to be called up to Court Room #26 presided by Judge Young. As we entered the room I noticed the defendant with headphones on and his Defense lawyer was a pretty blonde.  The DA, a pretty brunette was looking professional yet somber.  There was the judge’s clerk, court reporter, an interpreter for the defendant and two bailiffs.  There wasn’t an empty seat by the time everyone was herded in, and some of us had to take seats up on the juror’s stand.  We were asked to rise as the judge entered the chambers.

I thought I was ready for what was about to unfold as I’ve been summoned over a dozen times, and the last time I served I actually was selected to be a juror; I passed muster so to speak.  It was for a DUI case which the defendant was found guilty.  Why people push the envelope hoping to be found not guilty when clearly, they are, is beyond me.  But we are all given a chance to have our day in court, on our dime.

I have always feared that I would be called upon for a murder trial or worse a trial having to do with gang activity where I would be afraid of the repercussions for serving on that trial.  But it turns out that there is something worse that I hadn’t imagine and I immediately found myself in a cold sweat as the judge disclosed the charges against the defendant sitting quietly in his chair with the translator headphones on.

This was a case of child molestation.

You could see some of the people start to visibly shake as the judge named off five horrific charges this man allegedly did against a child under the age of ten. We would soon learn that victim would be called upon to testify and she would be asked about what body parts he touched and what he did to her and what he made her do to him.  We also learned that the defendant would not be taking the stand.

I’ve known two people personally where a former spouse had lied or had threatened to lie about child abuse or molestation to get custody of their kids, so after the initial shock, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.  It became just a little bit harder to be prepared as the defense attorney on more than one occasion said her client was guilty of certain inappropriate acts, but that we needed to take each charge separately, and not to lump them all together.

For two full days I sat in wait as the judge, DA and Defense attorney grilled prospective jurors.  There were 70 of us at the start, twelve were finally selected, and two were chosen as alternates. There were only ten of us left who were not called upon to be questioned.

During our last break I overheard one of the gentlemen whose name had not been called yet say that he was planning on buying a lottery ticket if he didn’t get called up.

I’ve been thinking about that. I can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to serve on a case like this.  But worse yet, is thinking of all the children who never have the chance to get justice.  And I think of all the people who don’t have the backbone to withstand the duress of going through such an emotional trying process. I would like to think I would man up.

Yes, I would have proudly served; and I pray I would have been fair and impartial.