Finished!!

As of about 10:30 this morning, I'm donedonedone with jury duty.  I really thought that I'd be getting released today.

 

I had to be there at 9:30, but with the fact that the free parking is never as many spaces as it should be I decided to go on in closer to 8:00.  I had to go to the bank anyway, so I left a little early and still got to the courthouse shortly after 8:00.  It was harder to get a parking space than it was Monday or Tuesday, so I'm glad I didn't wait any later.  I had no problem taking my crochet hook in, although the decorative metal on my shoes did set the detector off.  I got a little crochet time in, and then it was about 9:30 so I put my yarn away and waited for the baliff to come collect us.  Sometimes, the jurors for a particular judge/trial will have a colored sticker affixed to the Juror id pin that is required to be worn.  Ours was blue.  The baliff didn't actually come get us, she called the jury room and we were told she'd meet us at the elevators on the floor where the courtroom is.  That was odd, but I wasn't sure if it meant anything or not.  Then we all got to the 4th floor, which took a few trips for everybody to get there.  As soon as we were all there and in line, she came along and took all the blue stickers off which really made me think that we were all about to be released.  Then we were sent into the courtroom and all of us, even the prospective jurors who had been in the juror box, were told to sit in the "audience" area and I also noticed that the defendant was absent.  At that point, we were all pretty sure that the trial wasn't going to happen.  The judge announced that for reasons he wasn't going into at that time, he was declaring a mistrial and that we were all released from his court but not necessarily from jury duty itself and we were to go to the jury room again.  So, we all trooped back down there and waited.  The judge had also said that he expected us to be relieved entirely, as it was Wednesday and by this point in the week most juries are already set and no more trials are scheduled.  The jury clerk said that she hadn't heard anything yet, but that it was a possibility.  So I got out my yarn and got started again.  I think it was close to 10:00 by then.

 

I didn't really get anymore crochet done at that point, I had an enjoyable discussion about our art with the other lady who crocheted and then a younger girl was very interested in it so we spent a lot of time converting her - and I think we succeeded in getting her interested in finding her crafting gene.

 

About 10:30, the clerk made the announcement that we were all released from jury duty service unless we were already on a jury or a panel but most of those people seemed to already be in their appropriate court rooms and the jury room was immediately filled with everyone standing in a line to leave.  I let Otter know by text and also Froggy, then I called Bill to let him know I was done.  I was thinking I'd just go on home because I was very tired and Bill suggested it as well since he said I sounded tired.  It took me a few minutes to check out and get to my car, it was almost 11:00 by then.  I called Bill back and suggested we have lunch.  He told me where he was at, I picked him up and we went to Goldie's for burgers.  After I dropped him back off, I went by Otter's store to surprise her with lunch money.  I went to the post office and UPS place to clear our boxes - both were on the way home.  I got home, let my very over excited dogs in and changed into my comfy jeans.  I got my grocery list together and relaxed for a while.  Then I ran to Wallyworld and I got in and out in just over 30 minutes.  The only drawback is that I had to get the groceries unloaded from the car by myself!  The dogs didn't even offer to help, although they did watch me to make sure I didn't make any mistakes! :)

 

I spent the next few hours relaxing and playing with the dogs, then when Bill got home he wanted to go to Hobby Lobby.  We waited for Otter, she got home about 30 minutes later.  I didn't find anything (I wasn't really looking) and Bill was looking for something it turned out they didn't have, but Otter found several things.

 

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not yesterday, but I recognized the name of the defendant and remembered enough of what he was accused of to know that I would not have been an unbiased juror.  If I had actually gotten picked in the first name draw and was in the jury box, I would have let the judge and attorneys know that, but I would probably have asked to speak to them at the judge's bench to not "contaminate" anyone else (which would have been fine and they actually encourage that, to protect everyone's privacy) and I probably would have been sent back downstairs to the jury room at that point.

 

I also think I know why I've gotten called so many more times than a lot of people.  The jury clerk was explaining how the jurors are picked, and it is based on id or driver's licenses like many other states.  They use the last name, the number needed is divided by 26 (the letters of the alphabet) and an even amount is taken from each letter group.  I used to be hyphenated, something I did for Dad and quit using the hyphenated last name after he passed away.  But some records still show my last name as starting with my maiden name and some have my correct name.  Basically, I'm shown as having two last names so I'm in the names pool twice.  I'm going to see about getting it all changed back to my married name and see if I can get the second name out of the files.

 

I will go back to work tomorrow, and I don't even want to know what my desk looks like!