We the Jury

Today, I did my civic duty as a juror. My day started at the Dallas County Central Jury Room, a place that looks like The Auditorium From The 1970s That Time Forgot. After making it through security, I found my seat and waited for instructions. They showed us an exciting motivational film about jury service, and then told us that we could take a break for 45 minutes while they got everything together. By that time I was getting a little bored since I had already read the paper and checked my e-mail about 15 times. But lo and behold, my name was called and I was told to report to the front of the room.

By some miracle, I was selected to report to a justice of the peace court not too far from our house. The only problem — I didn’t have a way to get there since Chel was tied up in yoga class.

Thank goodness Dan was in town, because he picked me up downtown and gave me a ride to the court. There I waited another long while in the jury room with my other lucky jurors. The twelve of us were moved into an empty courtroom where they gave us instructions and put us in order.

Once we got in line, we walked into the courtroom where the case would be held. I was expecting a table full of lawyers, the court reporter, maybe a crowd or even Court TV. I was ready to be grilled about my political beliefs and have my big chance to sound crazy or opinionated enough to be kicked off the jury. So it was a little bit of a letdown when the courtroom only contained the judge, the defendant and the plantiff.

The judge explained that the case was about eviction for nonpayment of rent. The apartment complex manager and the resident were representing themselves, and neither had any questions for us. So we were escorted out of the courtroom while they went through the mysterious process of jury selection.

A couple of minutes later we were marched back into the courtroom for the announcement of who would serve on the jury. Despite my best efforts to wear a suit and look crazy, I got picked. The judge invited the six who weren’t selected to stay and watch the trial, but amazingly every one of them left. It was down to our six jurors, the judge, the apartment manager and the tenant.

The court session itself only took about 45 minutes. The apartment manager and tenant each got a chance to testify, and then cross-examine each other. The tenant said that she didn’t pay her rent because she knew people from the complex were entering her house using the complex’s key and messing with her stuff — taking her scissors, turning on her porch light, stealing things from her bathroom, replacing her expensive washing powder with the generic brand. She wrote the complex a letter saying she had to install a security system to protect herself, and because that would cost her about two months’ worth of rent, she offered to not pay rent for January and February to even things out. The complex didn’t go for that deal, and insisted that she pay.

Now everything was turned over to we, the jury. We felt bad for the lady, but it sounded like she may have just been a little forgetful about things in her apartment, and the law said she had to pay her rent. There was no other conclusion we could come to than to find for the plaintiff. It took us about five minutes.

By the time we had gotten back into the JP’s court, he had married a nice, young couple and had another couple lined up ready to go. The judge brought the two parties back up to the front and read the verdict. The tenant had seven days to appeal or to move out. And that was that. When it was said and done, the whole thing took a little more than an hour.

It was a little like The People’s Court, except this one wasn’t reality tv, it was reality reality. We the jury had to evict a lady today — a nice lady, a lady confused about her washing powder, but a lady who needed to pay her rent. I hope she gets her rent paid and they allow her to stay. I wish it hadn’t come to this for her. Doing your civic duty is tough when it has tough consequences like that.

I gotta remember to mail my rent check tomorrow.