"Tell me a little about yourself," the assistant district attorney asks.
"Well, I'm from Rosemont and have lived here all my life. I own my own landscaping business along with my dad and work for a friend of my family as a landscape architect. I'm not married and have no kids. My whole family lives close by except my brother who is away at college."
"Do you have any college degrees?"
"I have an bachelors in landscape design."
She asks me a few more personal questions and then starts in on things that may have to do with the case. I've heard all the questions before as I am the ninth person chosen to sit on the jury. It's my first time doing jury duty and it's not nearly as exciting as it is on television. But the prosecutor is hot enough to be on one of those shows. Not very tall at about five five, she has long, brown hair, a very pretty face and blue eyes behind some fashionable glasses. She seems to have a nice figure under her blouse and jacket. Her legs are nicely toned, at least from the knees down. She has a skirt that matches her jacket and is wearing what appear to be comfortable shoes rather than something stylish.
She finally finishes with my questions and moves on to the next juror. I really don't want to be here but don't see much of a way out. It's the middle of winter and business is slow this time of year, so I can't use that excuse.
Once the prosecutor is done with her questions, the other attorney starts asking his questions. His are more about whether I think I can be partial, have I had bad experiences with this kind of crime, which is a gas station robbery.
I've already been here most of the day. It becomes more frustrating when the defense attorney finishes and then releases three of the potential jurors, especially since I'm not one of them. Of course, they both have to ask the same questions of the three new people that have been chosen and when none of them are asked to leave I think we're done.
I glance over at the prosecutor and even she looks bored. That's when I learn they have to ask the same questions of one more person who is going to be the alternate. When will it end?
Once we are all chosen the judge gives us our instructions. We have to wear these badges that let everyone know we are jurors, even if we go out of the courthouse for lunch. We can't talk to anyone about the case. Not the other jurors, the lawyers, family or friends. No posting tweets or to Facebook or any other social media. He finally finishes and I think we are going to get a break when the judge instructs the prosecutor to give her opening statement.
Basically we are hearing a case of a man that robbed a gas station of about two hundred bucks. There was no weapon involved and only a minor shoving incident when the employee tried to stop the robber. She goes over how she will proceed with proving her case. Then the defense attorney goes over his case and how he will proceed.
After he is done, the judge gives us a ten minute break and goes over how we can't discuss this case with anyone, no posting, no this and no that. We head out to the jury room. Nobody really says anything since we don't know one another. I take my book out of my pocket and begin to read. About fifteen minutes later we are called back in.
We hear testimony of the two employees that were in the store at the time of the robbery and they explain what happened. After the second employee we hear from the first officer to arrive at the scene. He tells us what he saw when he arrived and what the two employees told him. When he is done the judge releases us for the night. Before we leave, we are again given the same instructions, only this time he adds a few things about visiting the site of the crime or doing any research about it.
The next day I arrive early and head right to the jury room. There is one other person there, a man in his fifties. He's reading the paper and only looks up long enough to say hi. The rest of the jurors arrives and I check them out as we wait to be called. Of the thirteen jurors, there are eight men and five woman. Our ages range from my twenty five to the alternate juror who is probably in his sixties. Next to me sits a woman who is probably about thirty five or so. She is attractive but seems very conservative, wearing clothing that doesn't seem to be very flashy. Two of the woman are probably in their forties, one looks old enough to be a grandmother and the last woman is probably about thirty. Out of habit, I notice they each have a wedding ring except the woman next to me.
Nobody says anything till the woman next to me asks us what we thought of the whole jury process. That starts out some conversations as people laugh about how boring it was and about how many times we could each hear the same question.
We finally get called into the courtroom. The judge greets us and then gets things underway. The prosecution is still calling witnesses and I listen to each of them in turn. We hear from another of the police officers that responded to the call, his supervisor and then the lead detective. It's during his testimony that I notice the prosecutor holding her back slightly. She dressed similarly to how she was dressed the day before, wearing a woman's suit with a skirt. Several more times during the day I notice her holding or rubbing her back. She is also slow to rise when she needs to get to her feet.
On my return from my lunch break, I get off the elevator on my floor and see someone stooping down, grabbing papers that she dropped. Without even thinking I go over to help.
"Here, let me get those for you."
"Thank you," she says as she turns around. "Oh shit, you need to go right now."
I turn to her, ready with a sarcastic comment, till I realize she is the prosecuting attorney. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize who you were."
"Just go."
Fuck. Now I had to wonder if I was going to get into trouble. As I walk away, I say over my shoulder, "When you get home, take a shower and alternate between cold and hot every few minutes. It'll help your back." Then I walk through the door.
I'm in my own world as the rest of the jurors come back from lunch. I'm nervous as hell when we are called back into the courtroom. I take a quick look at the prosecutor, but she is looking down at some papers.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there was an incident that was brought to my attention that we need to deal with before we can continue." Oh shit, I'm in trouble. "Juror number nine, will you please stand." It takes me a moment before I realize that he is talking to me. "Juror number nine, can you please tell me what happened outside near the elevators?"
Fuck, I think to myself. "Yes sir. When I got off the elevator after lunch I saw someone kneeling down trying to gather some papers she had dropped. I went over to help before I realized it was one of the lawyers for this case." Everyone knew who I was talking about, but I was nervous and couldn't think of the right thing to call her. "I offered to help and I guess she saw my badge and told me I needed to leave. I looked at her and saw who it was and immediately walked away."
"And did you say anything to her?"
I felt my face turn red. "Yes sir."
"What did you say?"
"Well, I had noticed she was holding her back several times this morning and I learned an trick from my dad who's had back problems for a while. I told her to take a shower and switch from hot to cold every few minutes. Then I walked through the door."
"You may have a seat."
"Thank you sir."
I'm sweating bullets waiting to get hauled out of the courtroom. "I will ask the juror to return to the jury room and wait for further instructions." He then went over the usual list of rules before dismissing us.
I can feel everyones eyes on me as we wait to go back to the courtroom. "Does that really work?" one of the guys asks.
"Excuse me?"
"The shower thing."
"Oh, yeah. Whenever I have sore muscles after a workout I do that. It always helps me feel better."
"I'll have to try that."
"Same here," says the school teacher. Several more people agree and then we are called back in.
"Juror number nine, will you stand please?" I take a deep breath and rise. "It doesn't seem as if you've done anything wrong, but I had to check before we could proceed. You will not be asked to leave, but please be more careful. I do appreciate that you were trying to help and the court recognizes that. You may be seated."
"Thank you sir." I take my seat and look quickly at the prosecutor. She is watching me, but doesn't do anything more.
The rest of the day goes quite slowly as we listen to more testimony. The next day we are told that we will be delayed about an hour, so I grab my book and start reading. Half of the other jurors go down to the cafeteria for coffee or breakfast or just to get out of the room.
"Hey, man, thanks for that advice yesterday. Sitting all day gives me a back ache. I tried that shower thing and it worked great."
"Glad I could help."
"So, you think we'll be done by today?"
