Happy Monday everyone. Last Monday at this time, I was sitting in an auditorium at The Berks County Courthouse along with 60-some other residents of Berks County filling out a questionnaire and watching a video of one of the judges explaining the law as we were all called in for jury duty regarding a first- degree murder case from 2018.
Then we were all directed to a court room and were assigned juror seat numbers - mine was number 4. The judge asked us all a series of questions which were already asked on the questionnaire we filled out when we arrived at the courthouse, then she called each and every one of us into her chambers one at a time, once again asked the same questions and then went over our answers. One of the questions we were all asked was "Would you more than likely tend to take a Police Detective or Police Officer's testimony as true over the defendant's?" We were told to answer honestly and of course I did. My answer was "yes" as it is my personal opinion that (especially in a murder case such as this was) if you are there sitting in that court room, then you are not "completely" innocent and must have apparently committed "some" type of crime serious enough to put you there in the first place. Mind you, I am generally speaking what you might call "middle of the road" when it comes to people and life and I do not tend to judge anyone without giving them the chance to explain themselves. The judge then proceeded to ask me "Let's put it this way, if you were the defendant in this case, would you want you on the jury?" Again, I answered honestly and replied a definite "No, I would not - not in a trial case of this particular nature." She kindly thanked me and told me that I was excused. Now, please understand that I am not at all naive and believe that ALL law enforcement officers and the like never lie on the stand (I am quite sure that some do), but I would more than likely tend to give them the benefit of the doubt in most cases none-the-less. It is just my personal conviction and I stand by it whether anyone agrees with me or not. Like I said, I am honest. Strange thing is, I had this same discussion with potential juror number 2. The reason I use the word "potential juror" is because we were only in the process of possibly being picked for the final jury. Number 2 was a former Police Officer for the City of Reading and spent six years in the courthouse as an officer for the Reading District. One thing is for sure, whether you are selected for the final jury or not, you most definitely get to meet a lot of interesting people while there - even if it is just for one day. Another strange happening that day was that I found out that my co-worker (our Human Resources employee) was also called in for that same trial case as I also saw her in the court room, but (thankfully) she was picked over me and I truthfully could not wait to go back to work the next day. She; however, could not as the case was expected to last for at least the next three days or so.
Moving on, I took a PTO day the Friday before to attend my friend Deb's belated work Christmas Party. It was very nice and it was held at the same venue as last year. We also had a delicious buffet dinner as well. But before we went, we had lunch a bit earlier with her hubby who met us at a quaint little Pub and Restaurant called, "The Liberty House" ...
On the home front, Ginger had her spay surgery at our vet Monday two weeks ago. Dr. Mike said it went well but he is concerned about the fact that she is very underweight for her age so we are to give her as much food as she will eat - and she does eat! The next day or two after her spay surgery, we noticed this ...
She had a large, soft lump surrounding her stitches. We were a bit worried about it as it was a fairly large amount of swelling even though it did not look infected at all. Luckily, it turned out that it was merely scar tissue and over the next few days it began to go down a lot. So far, she is doing fine.
Today I am off work for the observance of Martin Luther King Day. I am planning on spending the afternoon with my friend Deb and then having a nice dinner with my sister Aurora Skye later on.
From all of us cool cats at The Wiccan Life, have a great day all and stay warm - (oh yes, and another tid bit from my movie review for you). Brightest Blessings!!
Jury duty is certainly interesting. I’ve served 4 times and been impaneled once as an alternate juror on an assault and battery on a child. Never a murder case. Your out and about sounds fun and glad that Ginger is doing just fine. Enjoy your day off!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was called to jury duty it was about a bicyclist and a car. Now, bicyclists here in the city do not obey traffic rules and I am more afraid of them than I am of cars. So when I was asked if I could be objective in the case I said no and advised them of the time I was almost hit by a cyclist when I was obeying the light and how he cursed me out because of it.
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