I was called for jury duty yesterday--consternation ensued

[brewens]

147. I was on jury duty one time and completely forgot getting the notice. I could have gotten out

of it easily as I was scheduled for a knee replacement already. I got a call telling me I was supposed to be there and I live really close to the courthouse so was there in like five minutes. I'm hoping they don't pick me to come up for selection and then get to talk to whoever to get out of it for the rest of the month. No such luck. I end up there with a paddell answering questions.

It was a meth dealer case and I sat there giving the defendant and his lawyer my best cold death stare the entire time! Despite being liberal to the bone, I look like a big mean redneck from hell! It wasn't long before I was booted with no explanation. The dudes lawyer must have used one of his whatever you call it to get rid of me! I actually hated to do that. I was probably the best friend that kid could have sitting there. If there was even the slightest crack in their case against him, I would have been all over it.

I've been on a couple of juries and another was also a meth case. For Idaho, this other kid could not possibly had a better jury. I was amazed at how open minded everyone was. I mean this guy was freakin' lucky! The problem was the kid basically was running a clinic on what not to do if you are out on parole for another meth sentence! I still marvell at the stupidity!

So he's out on parole, something we were not directly informed of but we couldn't miss it. Testimony told us a parole officer was called to the scene of the bust. Anyone would assume it was likely meth he got nailed for before.

He had gotten into kind of a halfway house run by a local church for troubled kids (he was maybe 20). The pastor there is one of my oldest friends but we aren't all that close really. The kid was doing so well that they trusted him to drive other residents and bought a car for the purpose. They figured they would save on all the taxi fees.

At some point he hooked up with another old buddy user from his nearby home town and got back into meth. Then he turned the car into a mobile meth dealership. A narcotics officer spots him and his buddy in the parking lot of a cell phone shop with a girl leaning in the window and sees her walk off with something. Then he follows them to a bank branch a couple blocks way and a guy comes out and gets in the car. They drop that guy off at a grocery store a mile or so away. This is enough for the narc to call the regular cops to have this kid pulled over and searched.

In no time they have a dog, parole officer and other cops there and find the goods. A big bag of meth, user paraphanalia, empty bags and a set of scales in the trunk!

The kids lawyer actually did a good job for him. He even got the dog handler to admit that sometimes you get a false alert. They had real trouble finding the stash and he almost gave us cause to consider an illegal search. That cop was not skilled at testifying. They had to recall him to testify again the next day and walk that one back. If you could have created doubt on the distribution charge, his lawyer came as close as you could, but the scales sunk that.

We had to bust the kid. His lawyer flagged me down and interviewed me after the verdict. I told him he did a great job but WTF? How did that guy even think he had a chance? Talk about not even having anything to work with! Good guy that lawyer though. I'd recommend him in a heartbeat to anyone, if they didn't have big bucks to get the best in town at least. He earned his money.