Woman Sentenced for Faking PTSD

[vienna]

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/denver-woman-sentenced-faking-ptsd-dodge-jury-duty-161810396--abc-news-health.html

The best laid plans... :)

I used to work for a team of psychologists (Masters and Doctors degrees) and the director of the group told me the profession of psychologist is one that almost always gets excused from jury duty. Attorneys on both sides of a legal issue, civil or criminal, will use their challenges to dismiss a psychologist fearing they will either see through some of their legal mind games and/or influence other jurors...

<O>

[Stealhead]

My sister got out of jury duty once.She called in the day she was supposed to show up at the courthouse she said that she had lost her wallet and therefore had no ID the clerk of court simply told her not to worry about it we will put you back in the system.Of course the booster was that she offered to come in anyway which I suppose made it seem more honest to whomever she spoke with on the phone.

Some people say that appearing racist or something along those lines will get you off but that wont work on the more keen judges.

[VipertheSniper]

I loved this comment to the article:

I'm an attorney. The best I ever saw was a man who claimed he couldn't serve because he frequently, and without warning, would fall asleep. The Judge asked if frequent breaks would help. The man said no. He said he fell asleep about once an hour, and couldn't control it. The Judge asked him what he did for a living. His answer? Municipal Bus Driver. The courtroom erupted in laughter, and the Judge excused him.

What I really don't get is why someone would go to such lengths to avoid jury duty. Unless it's a high profile case I don't think it's that time consuming, apart from that, that woman is a writer, so it's not as if she had regular workhours anyway.

I know in Austria they have troubles getting enough jurors, but I guess that's because here there are no repercussions if you just ignore the summons to jury duty.

[Stealhead]

In most cases the first time you get summoned and you are a no show they don't do anything a repeat offender will get contempt of court but only receive a fine and sometimes the judge will write a bench warrant right then.If you have good enough reason in person or over the phone they just put you back in the pool again.In some counties a sheriff deputy will show up at your home and remind you of your obligation.

Now with standard federal jury duty(not grand jury) summons I have heard that they usually don't do anything if the person does not respond to a summons if they live in another city away from the courts location I don't know if that is true but I know more than one person that ignored a federal summons and nothing ever came of it and they never got a second summons.

With grand jury summons they would get contempt of court if they clearly just did not show up but you know when you are a grand juror.

Some judges are jerks and will not accept much as hardship like just staring a new job for example which I would consider a fair hardship just show me proof that it is your first week or so.

[Platapus]

But her plot was foiled four months later when Judge Mansfield heard a woman bragging about how she faked mental illness to evade jury duty on a local radio show.

I do love it when stupid criminals brag (confess) to their crimes. :yep: