Room 362 111 Centre Street Supreme Court, Manhattan. I arrived at 9:30 am. Almost lunch break (12:30) and no one has made a peep since we had roll call at 10:00 am. I’m beginning to wonder if they will just let us all out. We’re at least 50 people here hanging around, it’s strangely quiet. They didn’t even call jurors into court cases like they did throughout the day yesterday. Even the annoying soda vending machine has only made me jump once with its sudden crashing sound. I swear it sounds like someone tripping over a large object.
I did find out that the taser girl from yesterday didn’t get her taser back…..
Well, we’ve just been sent for lunch-back at 2:15. My bet is we’ll be sent home afterwards…who knows.
This morning in the papers, I learned why there were so many camera trucks around yesterday. The Brooke Astor case was finished-her son was found guilty almost all counts against him. Money brought greed with a bit of forgery, theft and fraud on the side. His wife has been getting the blame-of course blame the wife!
After lunch, we sat in the room with no word from the court officer until almost 3:30 pm when our names were called and we were each handed a sheet stating we have fulfilled our jury duty responsibilities and won’t have to serve for another 6 years. The guy sitting next to me said with a loud happy voice, ‘this is my last time-I’m 85!’ It was a sweet and funny moment. I never even had a voir dire, I would have loved to catch a glimpse of a few cases swirling around our justice system. It’s my own version of reality check.
This is the 3rd time that I have been called for service in my life and the very first time I was never asked a question from lawyer or judge. It was strange being in a room with so many people without conversing (like a very long subway ride), for an entire day. Actually two days in my case. I’m thinking about the so called Rubber Room in NYC where disciplined teachers of varying degrees, are sent to a no-mans land of teacher doom, no students are present and where no classes are taught, but the teachers show up, punch the clock and do their time. It’s a very strange system with its hints of being quite archaic, wasteful and dysfunctional. But I digress, I left the courthouse with the only interesting memory was taser girl…..