The "long" trial

Someone with my maturity level shouldn't be called to serve on a jury where the defendants' last name is "Weiner".
It started with jury selection (which lasted two and a half days, I might add).  For those of you who have never served on a jury before, there is a selection process where the two attorneys get to ask potential jurors questions to see if they would be good for the case, bad, etc.
"Do you know Mr Weiner?"
"Are you familiar with Mr Weiner or his business?"
"Do you have any financial dealings with Mr Weiner?"

Due to the fact that I was probably one of the 3 or 5 people that wasn't retirement age, I felt like I was the only one who found these lines of questioning difficult to sit through with a straight face.

The Weiner "jokes" continued throughout the trial.  The first day a state trooper was testifying.
Lawyer:  "At that time, did you speak to Mr Weiner Sr or Mr Weiner Jr?"  (Yes, there were two of them!)
Trooper: "At that time, I wasn't aware there was two Weiners. I spoke to the younger Weiner...."

Oh my!

It wasn't until the second day of the trial, when a piece of evidence was presented, that I realized the last name was actually spelled with a "t" at the end.  The "t" was obviously silent, which made it funnier to me.  Some of the lawyers (there was three of them) really stumbled over the last name and one kept trying to pronounce the silent "t", but she was always corrected.
"It's Weiner, not Weinert" one would say.

I had originally been called for jury duty in July but I deferred it to November because we had company every day in July.  They ended up calling me in December, and I was chosen for the jury to serve right before Christmas.  Uggggh.  The timing couldn't have been worse!  What was supposed to be a 2-3 day trial ended up being 7 full days, stretched out over the span of a month (due to holidays, illnesses, lawyers fighting, etc).  It was awful.  Deliberation at the end was over 5 hours long.  I lost all faith in the justice system. The defense played the sympathy card and most of the jury bought it.  It was 2 against 4, myself and another juror pointing out fact after fact after guilty fact.  Justice was not served.  Very disappointing.

But anyways, I am done with that for two years.  And, the next time I am summoned for jury duty and they ask me if I have served on a jury before, I can say "Yes, I served on a month long Weiner trial". Ha!

Drove to this beach for lunch one day

slid down this clay trail

to walk here

 

and collect driftwood here