This time Jury Duty was fun

Ever sit down at a mall and just watch the people walk by? You see all kinds of people of all of races.

Some are skinny, some are not so skinny. Some are attractive and some are unattractive. And some have hair, others, like me, don’t.

Some even forget to pull their pants up past their knees and walk like they have something stuck up their…...

Still, it’s fun and relaxing actually, to sit and watch the hundreds of people who venture to the mall every weekend. But if you really want to see a different variety of people, almost a true sideshow, then go to the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas.

This past Thursday I had the privilege you could say, of responding to my jury duty summons. The second jury duty summons in less than 24 months and third in the last 60 months.

I’m not complaining but I know people who have jury duty maybe once every 10 years and even know people who have never been summoned to serve. Jury duty can be a big pain in the rear sometimes but I always say I might need a jury some day or someone I love and care about might need one so as a good citizen I’m always there when I’m supposed to be.

Now I was not picked on Thursday and have never been chosen to actually serve on a jury. I would like to some time but this past Thursday was not one of them.

I was juror No. 507 and had to be at the central jury room at 8:30 a.m. Now with it being Thursday I figured I wouldn’t get chosen and would be out of there by noon.

I was correct.

Monday and Tuesday are the busiest days for selecting juries and there were maybe 100 of us – which means the room was empty – on this day. They did call three groups but juror No. 399 was the last called.

Okay enough about not being called. The fun part was again watching the different kinds of people and different kinds of lawyers and police officers come and go. During one of the breaks I stood in the main lobby and watched people entering the building and through security.

Standing there I saw what I figure were family members and friends of those on trial. Most of the people entered through security without any problems. Occasionally you would hear this beep and the person would take their keys out of their pocket - nothing out of the ordinary.

But then there was this one guy who I will call Snoop Dogg because he looked identical to the rap singer. He was tall, skinny and his hair was thick with two pony tails in the back on the back of his head.

He wore numerous necklaces, had a big belt buckle keeping his pants up, which were just barely above his knees and wore this ridiculous sun glasses. Beep (pause) beep…every single time he tried to go through security the stupid thing beeped!

Now instead of taking all of his jewelry and belt buckle off, the security guard would tell him to take one thing off at a time. Well the dad gum security thing – I don’t know the true name for it – kept beeping, beeping and beeping!

Now his buddies – I personally think these guys were part of a gang but maybe I’m just judging before the facts – were already through security and they kept laughing and laughing. Well I was laughing too.

It was funny after the first two or three beeps but it dragged on. Then it became ridiculous. And in the meantime the line to enter the court building was probably 25 to 30 people deep. The security guard was no help either.

Finally, and I’m being serious, after about 10 minutes two uniformed officers from the Dallas County Sheriffs Department pulled this guy, who was probably in his mid-20s, to the side and chatted with him for a minute.

This guy and his buddies finally made their way over to the elevators and disappeared. I stood in the lobby for a little while longer and saw a different group of people you normally don’t see at the mall on a Saturday.

And I also saw people stepping off the elevators smiling and hugging family and friends and saw others with angry and disappointed looks on their face. That probably meant a verdict didn’t go their way.

It was not the same as watching people at a mall but it was pretty entertaining. You definitely see a different kind of people at a court house.