Judge orders man to carry sign saying, ‘I failed to appear for jury duty’
BY RUTH ANN KRAUSE Sun-Times Media January 24, 2012 10:20AM
Updated: January 25, 2012 2:18AM
A prospective juror in a fatal drunken driving crash who left in the middle of jury selection has been ordered to stand in front of the Lake County (Ind.) Courthouse the next two Mondays with a sign that says, “I failed to appear for jury duty.”
Court officials did not release the man’s name, but the 22-year-old told Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. he wasn’t thinking when he left after lunch during jury selection Dec. 5 for the trial of Jeffery Cleary of Valparaiso.
“I’ve never been in trouble before,” said the man, who told the judge his mother “was about to lose her job” and acknowledged he didn’t follow the judge’s instructions during the jury selection process.
“Help me understand what it is about my words, ‘You’ve got to come back,’ that you don’t understand?” Stefaniak said. ”I’m at a loss to understand why you did what you did.”
“I wasn’t really paying attention,” said the man, who is unemployed and whose mother didn’t lose her job.
Stefaniak said the man was “the very person who should be on a jury. You’ve got nothing else to do.”
Stefaniak ordered the man’s name be put back into the juror pool, and told him to show up in court at 7:30 a.m. Monday and Feb. 6 with the sign and walk in front of the courthouse until the bailiffs release him.
Jurors convicted Cleary, 65, of misdemeanor drunken-driving counts and infractions. Prosecutors said he had a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.15 percent when he crashed into a truck, crushing Philip Amsden, 63, who was repairing a flat tire near the Ridge Road ramp to Interstate 65 in Hobart in 2010.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment