Posted on 04/28/2010 6:35:52 AM PDT by Orange1998
A 19-year-old college freshman missed class Tuesday when a federal judge decided to teach her a civics lesson by ordering federal marshals to haul her in chains from school to court to explain why she shirked jury duty.
Kelsey Gloston stood in ankle and wrist restraints in court Tuesday afternoon wearing flip flops, a tight white T-shirt, short-shorts and sporting green streaks in her hair. Though she rolled her eyes and looked impatient while waiting for the judge, once U.S. District Judge David Hittner took the bench her tears flowed.
The judge was incensed that the teen had hung up on jury clerks calling to get her to the courthouse.
“You in effect went right at the jury folks and said you'd have nothing to do with it,” Hittner said sternly. “I'm going to hear exactly what your problem is with jury duty and what your problem is with how our country operates.”
The judge released Gloston, who said she's a pre-nursing student at Lone Star College's Cy-Fair campus, to return with a lawyer for a hearing Thursday on whether he should find her in contempt and possibly detain her.
Gloston is not the typical jury duty scofflaw. She did not entirely ignore her jury summons.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I got a pass a number of years ago when I was breast-feeding. The jury staff were a little touchy about it; they said I could pump breast milk and have someone else in daycare give it to my son. I pointed out that my son had a serious chronic health condition and no daycare center or babysitter would assume the risk of caring for him. They gave me a pass for three years.
When my boy was three, however, I made no excuses, found a sitter, and was quite willing to serve. It's not impossible to find a sitter for a few days.
thanks
A lot of it's based on the fact that the courthouse people tend to treat you like absolute dogsh*t, with their "We own you" attitude.
I was owned for three weeks a couple of years ago, and will do everything in my power to avoid being imprisoned like that again.
Personally I think jurors should be required to know their rights and duties as a juror. If jurors knew that they could call witnesses, cross examine, decide what is and isn’t admissible, our whole court system would be transformed back to a better system.
Think about it. No more past conviction evidence being declared inadmissible. No more mandatory sentencing. We may not always get the outcome we want but we would get the outcome the jury desires. In fact its quite clear from the words of Jefferson, Adams and others, that in a jury, law isn’t as important as a clear juror conscience.
You are not as alone as you might think.
This was her first mistake.
>>A lot of it’s based on the fact that the courthouse people tend to treat you like absolute dogsh*t, with their “We own you” attitude.
I was owned for three weeks a couple of years ago, and will do everything in my power to avoid being imprisoned like that again.<<
I showed up in my normal attire, a Western style snap shirt, clean blue jeans, 2” wide leather belt with an old brass buckle and my polished boots. The defense attorney asked my name and excused me. The County didn’t call again for sixteen years. The next court appearance mimicked the first one.
Conservatives are not appreciated in courtrooms or at least that’s my conclusion.
My daughter born, raised and a resident of California is attending college in New York City. She does live and works part time in New York. She has a California drivers license, votes in California and intends to return to California upon graduation. She is legally a citizen of California. Seven months ago she received a jury summons from the county superior court. Using the provided form we applied to postpone her duty. The form allows us to say she is a student which we did. We have phoned, written, provided at their request a certified letter from the college, which the school did. We just submitted a new packet, the jury people returned the university’s letter to us with no explanation. We have to telephone again. The point being these courts are out of control on the jury service issue. The legal system is so fouled up that no one takes pride in serving hence the courts are now compelling in typical fouled up fashion the use of hours of time to establish what common sense would grant.
Somehow I get the feeling that this is one of the 18 year old Obama voters. I wonder if these teens knew that registering to vote is just asking for jury duty.
Sit in the jury room I did, and say what I did when asked about my tolerance of drug users, and post here at FR what I’ve posted in the past about illegal drugs, and the responses to those postings, and you’ll understand I AM in the minority.
There is obviously too much money being made on the sale of illegal drugs for a reason, and that to me is most discouraging as the effects of drugs on our society are incredibly destructive.
Now why would anybody want her on their jury?
That's your fault, dad. At 19, the girl should have a clue about jury duty and a sense of her civic responsibilities.
Parenting fail.
The twit’s suing father: “She’s 19, she’s ignorant, she’s a kid. They don’t take anything seriously.”
Wouldn’t that require a jury?
Heh. :-)
A jury of non-ignorant non-kids who can take things seriously, he hopes.
Used to be that a person was expected to be pretty well matured by the age of 19. What age is it now? 40?
Yank her citizenship!
DMV? No government agency in Texas by that name. Drivers licenses are issued by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and cars are registered in the county courthouse in the county where one lives.
“A lot of it’s based on the fact that the courthouse people tend to treat you like absolute dogsh*t, with their “We own you” attitude.
I was owned for three weeks a couple of years ago, and will do everything in my power to avoid being imprisoned like that again. “
I know, it’s been long while for me, but it’s a cattle call.
Still, an opportunity to do a lot of good, if you can look at it that way.
On a larger scale, serving in the military or as a spy or as a founding father or as a missionary in a hostile land is not pleasant, either, but I am sure glad that many people have and do.
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