Post #844 – Jury Duty Recap!

So here is the layout of my day yesterday since I was rejected as a juror. It was kinda like the feeling where you spend hours hanging out with a girl only to find out the entire time you were hanging out with them they go with someone else. You kinda want to say Fuck You for wasting my time. But you feel slightly enlightened by the experience.

So work schedule changed slightly so I have been getting extra sleep. =) But yesterday I go to sleep in until 6AM. Instead of 5AM. Was out the door by 6:30am. Now the courthouse was in an area I was not famaliar with. The Kitsap County courthouse is in Port Orchard, WA. Everytime I think of Port Orchard I think of Gorst,WA which I call the Armpit of Kitsap. Because it’s where Highway 3 turns into Highway 16 and people freak out because they need to merge over. Plus you have to slowdown because it’s just a giant turn.

So I went to the website to figure out how to get to this place. I had Google Maps and Live Search on my Mobile Phone. Both had different directions and the Kitsap County Website had different directions.

So let me show you Gorst. If you have Google Earth Installed. Shortcuts are provided for you.

Here is the armpit of Kitsap County, Gorst, WA.

If you are the Google Earth Enabled Gorst, WA

And here is the location of the Courthouse.

Google Earth Link – Port Orchard Kitsap County Courthouse

So anyways I find a parking spot in the free parking section which is located around the block from the courthouse. This time it’s about 7:40am and the do not open the building until 8am. For some reason that morning was really cold. I saw a sign driving in that said 29F. Which was slightly shocking. But observing everyone else that was walking up to the door it would have appeared that I was the youngest person among the crowd.

So 8am comes around and they let us into the building. You get a security screening airport style. I set off the little metal detector and then I got frisked and then magic wanded. They found no metal. Only thing I could ponder is that I have a Fossil Wallet that has a little bar of metal on it. Then I get stuck on a scavenger hunt to follow the signs. Down never ending hallways. It reminded me of the credit sequence in I Heart Huckabees where he is running down and navigating a series of hallways. If you have never seen that movie. I feel a great deal of pity for you. It’s great and Noami Watts has great legs. King Kong was good for the fact you get to see Naomi Watts in basically underwear the entire movie. Other then that I can’t say anything pleasant about King Kong.

So Jury Duty is a lot like kindergarten. They assign you a number and you are always lining up in a line by number. Then you walk into a room as quietly as possible. But before we get to that point. You are sitting in a room and they make you watch a film about Jury Duty and what you should expect to see. After that we got to sit around until they were ready for us. I hadn’t had any coffee yet so the free coffee they had for us ran out. There was no coffee. I got stuck with Decaf Tea. No sugar. I am not a sugar man but I needed something to wake me up. Sugar can spike you up a bit. But I didn’t get the pleasure of either.

Jury Duty in the state of Washington pays $10 a day and 48 Cents a mile. I had to drive 38 miles one way. So if they don’t take taxes out I made $46.48 for my time. (38*2)*.48= $36.48 + $10 = $46.48 So I get that check in 2-4 weeks. Seems like a really shitty rebate check. When I bought my Powerbook I had a $250 rebate.

So then the bailiff came in and we all went into the hallway to line up. I was lucky #2 so I got to sit in the Jury Box. I was sitting next to some guy and this woman that smelled like she was a chain smoker and she looked like she was going to snap any minute.

The Judge started to read off this sheet about what they are looking for and how the process was going to work and basically a recap of everything. All the attorneys and judge have a sheet that basically says what your job is. Like during questioning they saw I had an engineer like title and they were asking me all these questions about logic. Not much about theory. But basically I really was not spoken to much.

But the general questions they asked to everyone I was the only one who was not married. I was the only one who didn’t have any children. I thik that was the demise of my time served. But they kept me there until the end of the day to be released.

So they asked a lot of questions like what do you think Reasonable Cause is? Where you had to speak and talk about what you thought it was to you. There were other questions like what you thought about drugs. I got asked this one. My response was “I have never done a drug in my life. But I don’t see that it’s the governments decision to decide what we put into our bodies. But if we commit a crime that affects someone other then ourselves then I think we have laws in place to handle that situation” Which spawned a lot of “I agree” from the 45 other people in the room.

But other then that was the only question I had been directly asked by the lawyers. The rest was just spent enjoying the experience. I wanted to be picked to experience what it’s like to go through the trial process. But also glad that I was released.

All and all it was an interesting experience. Work covers up to a week of Jury Duty per year. So I was lucky that I didn’t miss out on anything. It’s not exactly what I would call a perfect day. But the Chow Mein that I met up with Chris for afterwards was great.

Pan Fried Noodles and they cooked it in a bit of curry sauce. It was amazing. I forget the name of the place in Bremerton where we consumed. I will need to look that up.

All and All I wouldn’t recommend Jury Duty to anyone. Lucky you can only be picked once a year.