I joined the line of potential jurors at the Court House door waiting to be cleared through a metal detector and then escorted to a large waiting room that held at least 100 people, at which point we each traded our identity for a number. I became #10.
After waiting a half hour for five no-shows the "game" began. A list of 35 people were called to stand in line in the order of the call. They were led down the hall to a nearby court room and stood waiting for the judge to begin the selection process.
The judge seemed to be having a problem which he explained as soon as he figured out what was wrong. He needed a group of 35 to draw from and there were only 32. So the group was dismissed and returned to the assembly room. It seemed that 3 of the missing were "no shows." I was included in that group and was the fourth in line.
Back in the room several clerks were busy conferring around a computer making corrections to the list. Finally, the next two groups were called, led off to the court rooms, leaving about 27 people to wait for further instruction. I was one of this group too.
After about 15 minutes a judge appeared before our group with the good and bad news. The Good News: the selection was complete, we were excused as soon as he finished talking. The Bad News: we were free to go shopping or whatever, and would be paid $9.50 for our time. Unfortunately, that check won't arrive in our hands for another 6-8 weeks.
And that was my up close encounter with the wheels of justice . . . Now I'm left with the quandary of where to spend my newly found money. Hmm-mm, how many fat quarters can I buy with that amount?
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