Indiana Judge Punishes Jury Dodger With Shame

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 25, 2012 9:20PM

An Indiana man who skipped out on jury duty will spend two days marching in front of the courthouse carrying a sign saying, "I failed to appear for jury duty."

Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. gave the strange sentence on Monday to the man who was part of the jury pool for a fatal drunk driving accident.

The Northwest Indiana Times writes:

The man had arrived for jury duty but then failed to come back after the jury pool broke for lunch. Court officials on Monday said they believe the man is the second reluctant juror to have raised Stefaniak's ire to such a high degree.

The Post-Tribune reported the judge told the 22-year-old man, “Help me understand what it is about my words, ‘You’ve got to come back,’ that you don’t understand? I’m at a loss to understand why you did what you did.”

The man could only respond with, “I wasn’t really paying attention.” His name was placed back in the juror pool, and for the next two Mondays he will report to the Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point, Ind., at 7:30 a.m. with his sign.