Skip to main content

Getting Out Of Jury Duty With The Help Of Court Security Programs

I wrote about getting out of jury duty a while back. For obvious reasons this blog gets hundreds of hits from Google searches on this subject.

For the jury system to work we need a cross section of the community, not just the retired, or factory and government workers actually sitting on juries. Do we expect the doctors, lawyers, cops and business people to line up with simple and obedient servants for this duty any time soon?That just won't happen. The system is nearly broken and I’m not going to help repair it in any way.

In the last three decades the judges and court clerks have felt the need to frisk Americans before they enter public buildings. More than need it was truly a case of monkey see, monkey do.

The court bureaucrats get around the Fourth Amendment, Constitutional search issues by arguing that such searches are by your consent since you do not have to enter the courthouse at all. If you refuse to be searched they will simply deny your admittance.

That all changes when you’ve been summoned or subpoenaed as a juror or witness in a court case. They are demanding for you to appear but now also demanding that you submit to being frisked like a common thief under arrest.

I’d simply tell the security folks they post at their checkpoints that you are there in response at the courts direction but you refuse to be searched. The security people will look at you like you just arrived from Mars on a flying saucer. They just won’t know what to do other than invite you to leave. Make a note of the date and time and get a name or a number for the person who kicked you out and unknowingly excused you from your duty.

Write a letter to the person, court or other official telling them you responded but were not allowed into the courthouse. It will be impossible for anyone to cite or hold you in contempt of court since you actually responded as ordered. You need not waive your Constitutional rights just to make some court official happy.

This method is rarely used because the sheep have not yet learned to do this. Refusing to be searched is in no way refusing to respond to service as a witness or juror.

The reality is that if you’re there for jury duty they will quietly excuse you in hopes that this does not spread like wildfire and shut down their courts.

As a witness you should inform the lawyer by phone that subpoenaed you and tell him you wouldn’t submit to being searched. That may bring a delay in the case but if they need you count on being escorted in without being searched because the judge can make that happen.

If people begin doing this they will have to change their ways and let people responding to these invitations in without being searched simply be showing your summons or subpoena.

Feel free to hand over copies of my article to anyone and everyone that takes exception to your refusal to be frisked, fondled or otherwise molested without probable cause or a warrant under these circumstances.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey Paul, I've heard a certain L.A. County Judge wants your head over this article. He said you're right and can really make problems for their entire security program.

He read you blog after a court deputy passed it around yesterday.
Anonymous said…
As a lawyer I have to pay for a special bypass card in the county court and have to go through this in our federal court. I hate it and hope yo make enough trouble for the vile practice to change it for the better.

Popular posts from this blog

A 40 Caliber Nightmare Is Caught On Tape.

So you’re confident that that .40 caliber S&W service round will keep you safe. Maybe you’ll have second thoughts after you see this video. One hot summer night in 1994 Tempe and Mesa Arizona police were involved in a pursuit with this suspect who ran into a stranger’s apartment to hide after being shot TWICE in the chest. He was shirtless and you can see the blood pumping out of those two wounds. What’s really frightening is just how agile this fellow is as he struts to the ambulance. If he was not handcuffed and had a knife or a gun, ask yourself if he could still hurt you, your partner or a hostage? If your jurisdiction demands that officers carry either the 9MM or the .40 Caliber S&W it’s time to show this video to your bosses and lobby to have the .45 ACP round authorized. The switch may well reduce the screaming by self-appointed community activists about how many rounds police had to use on a suspect. The really talented and courageous video journalist, Karen Ke...

The origin of the feature film, COME FRIDAY…

CLick On the pictures to see full size versions. Long ago there was a young lady I had the hots for in a big way (Yes, I know that hots is not a word). She was pretty, incredibly bright, and had some real elegance about her. She had a love for children and basic kindness that you don’t often see in someone her age. I met her parents and could understand she came from a much more stable home than mine. I was raised by a single, welfare mom and suddenly found myself way out-classed. For whatever reasons things did not workout they way I had hoped. Sadly for me, we went on our separate ways. From time to time I’d run into this lady in various places where our job had taken us. Whenever this happened my heart would skip a beat or two. I left my hometown Chicago, and moved to Arizona where I founded my detective agency. As a private eye and soon a TV news producer too, my career took me to the highest profile criminal events in Arizona and throughout the country. There’s no question that ...

America Will See Its Worst Race Riot Yet This Summer

Star Prosecution Witness, Rachel Jeantel Sanford, FL —Yes, the George Zimmerman trial here has thousands of African-Americans getting ready for some serious bloodletting. I don’t want to make idle and dire predictions but this nation has never been so divided and racially sensitive.  Our African-American President took sides on this case at the very beginning.  That ratified a George Zimmerman guilty verdict in the minds of millions. There’s just one little problem, and that is the murder case should have never been filed.  It was filed purely for political reasons despite the fact that it was a simple justifiable homicide.  Zimmerman was on the block watch lookout program and followed a suspicious Trayvon Martin after he used an improper entrance to a gated community.  Zimmerman was acting as the eyes and ears of the Sanford Police Department. Martin did not like being followed and knew that he could easily beat up the out-of-shape...