This past Monday, I was summoned to appear at the Will County courthouse for jury duty.  This was my fourth time being called overall, and third in Will County.  All previous sessions have ended without me making it onto a jury and, considering I had plans to attend Purdue’s opening game in the Big Ten Tournament earlier today, I was hoping for more of the same.  Alas, it was not to be.

The call for a jury pool came late Monday morning and, after an early lunch, we had to report back at 12:45.  Which we did, but nothing happened.  Eventually, we were brought up to a courtroom to wait some more until the judge and attorneys were ready for us.  By the time we made it into the actual courtroom, there was not enough time to complete voir dire.  After returning to the courthouse on Tuesday morning, the jury was selected: twelve jurors and two alternates.  I was the second alternate.  At this point, we were told that the trial would take about two days and should wrap up by Wednesday afternoon.

And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  The trial started Wednesday, so I figured I was still safe for Friday’s game.  But then there was more waiting.  After two witnesses, we had to wait for the third, who had left the courthouse to pick up her children.  Which, I will say, is understandable.  But the jury was told to make other arrangements for child care, so I don’t know why the same standard didn’t apply to the witnesses.

More delay tactics on Thursday morning, including calling all of the jurors back in one by one to ask if we had been deliberating before the end of the trial, which then led to a wasted afternoon as the judge had prior commitments and necessitated our return on Friday.  After closing arguments, we deliberated for far longer than I had expected to come up with the verdicts: guilty on four counts of domestic battery and not guilty on one count of resisting arrest.

The good news is that I’m unlikely to be called back for jury duty in the Will Country Circuit Court for some time.  The bad news is that I am already on the docket for Federal District Court next month.  Hopefully, that goes more smoothly and doesn’t take up another entire week.