H
HUNGJUROR
Guest
I am in deep doo doo...
About a year ago I received a summons to appear for jury duty. I called to request that it be postponed per the instructions on the letter. The court clerck was very ammenable and told me that my request was granted and I could expect a new notification for a new date.
The matter never crossed my mind again though, and yesterday I received a Summons to be arraigned on a criminal complaint for deliquent juror status. I checked the website for the Office of the Jury Commisioner in Massachussetts and found that such proceedings (usually) have one of three outcomes.....
"1) accept evidence of disqualification; (2) allow the juror to serve and present evidence of completion of service within a specific time, or; (3) accept a plea of not guilty and schedule the case for a pretrial conference."
I am not ineligable, and have no aversion to serving(if thats all it takes to make it go away), so how do I avoid option 3 and prevent a trial?, the information provided does not specify whether I can be fined or arrested at the hearing (only that those are the consequences of NOT appearing).
My only excuse is that I never recived any subsequent mailings/notices(for which I have no solid explanation-I received my other mail at the sam addresses as the current summons??) and even I dont think that will hold any weight to a judge that proBably hears that 20 times a day....
I truly am a law abiding (if absent-minded) citizen that wants to (make this go away) by doing the right thing....PLEASE HELP!
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About a year ago I received a summons to appear for jury duty. I called to request that it be postponed per the instructions on the letter. The court clerck was very ammenable and told me that my request was granted and I could expect a new notification for a new date.
The matter never crossed my mind again though, and yesterday I received a Summons to be arraigned on a criminal complaint for deliquent juror status. I checked the website for the Office of the Jury Commisioner in Massachussetts and found that such proceedings (usually) have one of three outcomes.....
"1) accept evidence of disqualification; (2) allow the juror to serve and present evidence of completion of service within a specific time, or; (3) accept a plea of not guilty and schedule the case for a pretrial conference."
I am not ineligable, and have no aversion to serving(if thats all it takes to make it go away), so how do I avoid option 3 and prevent a trial?, the information provided does not specify whether I can be fined or arrested at the hearing (only that those are the consequences of NOT appearing).
My only excuse is that I never recived any subsequent mailings/notices(for which I have no solid explanation-I received my other mail at the sam addresses as the current summons??) and even I dont think that will hold any weight to a judge that proBably hears that 20 times a day....
I truly am a law abiding (if absent-minded) citizen that wants to (make this go away) by doing the right thing....PLEASE HELP!
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