Juror No. 1

 by Sybil Johnson

Juror No. 1. Sounds like the title of a legal thriller, doesn’t it?

In this case, though, that was my number when I was on jury duty for two weeks in December. 

I live in Los Angeles County. As you might expect, there are lots of courthouses and cases and, consequently, a need for lots of jurors. The last few times I’ve been summoned, I was assigned to downtown Los Angeles. Downtown L.A. is interesting, but it’s such a pain to get to from where I live, my usual reaction is “Do they want me to be in a bad mood?” This time, though, I was assigned to the Torrance courthouse, a much easier and closer place for me to get to.

The last time I was on jury duty was pre-Covid. Things have changed. Jurors no longer sit around in the jury assembly room waiting to be called for a panel. Instead, if you’re told to report in, you’ve already been assigned to a courtroom and case. There were forty of us in the jury pool. We started in the jury assembly room where we took care of the required paperwork, received our badges and waited to be called to the courtroom.

Here I met my fellow potential jurors for the first time. This was also when we discovered there was a creature (probably a squirrel) running around in the ceiling of the assembly room. Animal control had been called 2 weeks before, but hadn’t arrived yet. Apparently, this was not an uncommon occurrence. Once there was a raccoon in the ceiling that fell through and landed in the room when people were there. Not sure if it landed on anyone. Whatever happened, I’m sure it caused a great to do.

Anyway, we were soon sent to the courtroom for voir dire. I’ve got into the habit of mentally noting what I see as soon as I enter a room. I read somewhere years ago that, when describing a scene in a story, to ask yourself what are the first five things your character would notice.

In this case the character was me. Here are the things I noticed:

• As we walked into the courtroom, the lawyers stood facing us. So many lawyers. So many blue suits. I’m assuming this standing facing us thing was meant as a sign of respect for us, but it was a bit intimidating. 
• The courtroom was cold. So cold. The courthouse was built in the late 1960s. They don’t seem to be able to regulate the temperature throughout the building very well. The judge told us they’ve tried and advised us to wear warm clothing. 
• The courtroom was small. Smaller than most of the ones you see on TV. Smaller than any of the real-life courtrooms I’ve been in in the past. 
• There was no bailiff. I learned later that, since this was a courtroom where civil cases were heard, there’s a court attendant instead. They take care of the jury instead of a bailiff. 

During voir dire, I noticed the lawyers used an excessive number of Post-it notes, a sea of yellow. Makes sense to me, actually. Once a potential juror has been dismissed, they can just rip one off and replace it with another. 

Another thing I noticed was the plaintiff wore Snoopy socks with his very nice suit. They went well together. It sort of endeared him to me. Not that it made any difference in how I viewed the case. But it did get me thinking how a plaintiff or defendant decides what to wear to court and if it made a difference to most jurors.

We were questioned by three different lawyers, one representing the plaintiff and one for each of the defendants. During questioning, one of the lawyers asked all of us if anyone thought they wouldn’t want themselves to be a juror on a case they were involved with. I wanted to jump up and shout “me!” But, dang it, I would be exactly the kind of person I’d want on a jury. So I kept my mouth shut. 

One thing that surprised me was how many people had never been on jury duty before. I’ve been summoned many times over the years and been on 3 trials, all criminal.

I was ultimately picked as one of the jurors (Juror No. 1). They questioned all or almost all of the 40 potential jurors before finding 12 and 2 alternates. The jury was an interesting bunch. Quite diverse. Lots of interesting people. Lots of interesting stories. We all got along very well. One of the jurors, a lovely woman, became my JDB (jury duty buddy). Someone on the jury came up with that phrase and we all started using it. 

My JDB and I had lunch together every day at a Mexican restaurant near the courthouse called Mezontle. (The courthouse no longer has a cafeteria.) Good food, fast and friendly service. The lawyers also ended up there most days. We studiously ignored each other. We had many pleasant lunches together joined, at times, by other jurors. 

The courtroom was casual. The judge professional, but kind. He kept us amused with statistics and anecdotes about the LA County Superior court system during the occasional short break as we waited for something. It was interesting.

As I noted before, the courtroom was incredibly cold, the jury room even colder. We all came wearing sweaters and warm coats. I even wore some gloves one day. They had cat faces on them, which I’m pretty sure amused one of the six lawyers.

It was a civil case so we heard testimony from the plaintiff, defendants, a witness, a police officer, accident reconstructionists, some doctors (one of them the doctor from “Botched”)... The case went to the jury the day before I was set to leave for Seattle for Christmas. The judge kindly let me off at the end of the day. I had mentioned my plans during questioning and he assured me, that if the case didn’t finish before then, he’d excuse me. He kept his word. I left and Alt No. 1 subbed in. She was quite happy to do so. It’s hard being an alternate. 

I’m sad that I didn’t get to participate in the deliberations, but also a tiny bit happy I didn’t have to decide anything. My JDB, who also ended up as the foreperson, let me know later how things went. They ended up only needing another half day to come to a decision.

My takeaways:

• I’m more comfortable as a juror on a criminal case rather than a civil one. Not that I’m entirely comfortable deciding someone’s fate, but I feel I understand criminal law better than civil law. 
  
• I’d forgotten what it was like to go to work every day and come home at night. It’s been a long time since I had to do that.
• I’d also forgotten how tiring jury duty could be. I went home every day exhausted. It reminds me a bit of when I’m writing. You’re very focused, concentrating on everything, trying to wrap your head around the story or, in this case, the testimony. That can be very tiring.
• I also left jury duty with a new friend. My JDB and I plan on keeping in touch and, at some point, having a reunion lunch at Mezontle. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the same lawyers there. 
• And, finally, I wonder if they ever got the squirrel out of the jury assembly room ceiling or if it’s still there, scrambling around and making noise.