Potential Juror Curses Judge and Lands in Jail

Juries

Potential Juror Curses Judge and Lands in Jail

Posted Jul 15, 2008, 10:59 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A potential juror in Florida ended up in a jail cell rather than the courtroom when she apparently called the judge an asshole for refusing to dismiss her from jury service.

Sarah Muller told the Ocala Star Banner she was unhappy that the judge dismissed another juror but refused to excuse her from jury service because she needed to see a doctor. The newspaper didn’t quote the word that got Muller a contempt citation, but said it is “a two-syllable curse word—a crude term referring to the anus.” Muller also offered that she is a racist, but said it was just an excuse offered in hopes of avoiding jury duty.

During the contempt hearing, Muller apologized to the judge and said she didn’t know her comment was illegal. Tears streamed down her face, the newspaper reports. Judge R. James McCune Jr. sentenced Muller to three days in jail and ordered her to pay more than $200 in court costs and fines.

“I didn’t know I would go to jail for freedom of speech,” Muller said in an interview with the Star Banner from the jail booking center. Muller is unemployed and has a leaky heart valve. She said gas is expensive, and she can’t pay to drive to court as well as to the doctor's office.

Her advice to others in her situation: “Don’t say any cuss words at all. Maybe even ‘damn’ will get you kicked out.”

A hat tip to How Appealing.

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Posted by kay sieverding - 4 months, 1 week, 1 day, 11 hours, 56 minutes ago

President Bush used that word on national television and he didn’t get in trouble at all. Alan Deshowitz wrote that that word is now used similarly to the old term “dunghill”.

I think that anything that happens in U.S. courts should be reviewed in the perspective of what could happen if the same thing happened in a court in the new Iraq. If a judge in Iraq sent someone to jail for a ringing cell phone or a name, he or she could be killed. Of course, you can get killed in the U.S. in jail also. It was reported, for instance, that in early winter of 2005 a prisoner at Denver County Jail was killed by another prisoner. Did her being impolite really obstruct justice?
Posted by Graywolf - 4 months, 1 week, 1 day, 10 hours, 58 minutes ago

Once they are on the bench far too many judges become petty tyrants, using their office to punish individuals for personal slights. You can call the President an asshole in the Oval Office and she lacks the power to hold you in contempt, fine you and incarcerate you. Why should a county court judge in Backwater, Georgia wield that power? Judges need to be reined in more and required to be courteous to the people they are elected to serve, not bully.
Posted by kay sieverding - 4 months, 1 week, 1 day, 9 hours, 10 minutes ago

Shirley Abrahamson, the Chief Judge of Wisconsin, recently gave an interview that I can’t find on the Internet unfortunately. In it, she talked about how the big risk is that people will be afraid to use the courts. When I went to court as a plaintiff, I was fined $102,000 without any rule 11 c. 6 orders and I was imprisoned for 5 months without even being accused of disrupting a hearing or committing a crime. ( I had rehearsed and was extremely polite). Bloggers tell me I should have “settled the matter out of court”. What does that mean—that I should have found someone to beat someone up? For the rest of her life this woman and her family will probably be afraid of all judges. They will probably be reluctant to report crimes or provide evidence of crime and if someone hurts them they will probably try to settle it with force.
Posted by Googler - 4 months, 1 week, 1 day, 5 hours, 44 minutes ago

Sounds like Ms. Sieverding needs to find a different hobby.

Lawsuit-happy woman now in contempt of court
Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
Friday, February 3, 2006

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of Kay Sieverding after she failed to show up in his court to explain why she broke her promise to drop numerous lawsuits in exchange for her release from jail.

Colorado U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham said the former Steamboat Springs resident, now of Wisconsin, is in contempt and that he won’t let her out of jail again until he sees certified copies of documents dismissing the cases.

“The court no longer believes her or credits her promises,“ Nottingham said.

Her husband, David Sieverding, flew from Wisconsin Thursday to appear before Nottingham.

“Did she tell you why she chose to stay in Wisconsin?“ Nottingham asked Sieverding about his wife’s absence.

“Ah,“ said Sieverding. “I think she just said she decided to stay in Wisconsin. I’ve tried to avoid talking about this with her.“

The people Kay Sieverding has sued now want to collect more than $100,000 in attorneys’ fees for having to defend themselves in those actions.

Nottingham jailed the woman in September for refusing to drop the suits, which stem from a dispute with her Steamboat Springs neighbors. She filed the suits without a lawyer.

Sieverding sued the neighbors, city officials, the local newspaper, the Colorado Bar Association and the American Bar Association, among others. When she has lost in one court, she has filed in another.

Sieverding, 50, told Nottingham on Jan. 4 that she would drop the suits if he would let her out of jail. But she didn’t drop them, and earlier this month filed documents in the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, protesting Nottingham’s order.

Outside the courtroom, David Sieverding said he has tried to persuade his wife to drop the lawsuits, but said his wife is very stubborn.

“I just don’t understand that level of stubbornness, to be honest with you,“ he said.
Posted by That Lawyer Dude - 4 months, 1 week, 13 hours, 55 minutes ago

There are so many things wrong with this story(the facts not the reporting) that commenting is really to write an editorial
1. The lady was not exercising free speech. She was being contemptable. She also committed perjury in saying she was Racist and then saying she said it to get off Jury Duty.
She is an idiot and a perjurer. She does not deserve any pity.

2. The judge gave her 3 days for calling him an asshole. OVERKILL. A fine and community service would have served everyone better.

3. She ought to go to jail for lying to the court.

4. Jury DUTY is exactly that. IT IS A DUTY. You live in a free country, (Compare it to Iraq infact compare it to anywhere). This is the requirement. Thank God members of the Greatest Generation didn’t act this way or we would all be goose stepping.

I can’t go on except to say if she doesn’t like it here, this “Juror” should move…
Posted by kay sieverding - 4 months, 1 week, 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

I know this judge was a state judge not a federal judge, but isn’t there something similar to:

“Any person, corporation or association willfully disobeying any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of any district court of the United States or any court of the District of Columbia, by doing any act or thing therein, or thereby forbidden, if the act or thing so done be of such character as to constitute also a criminal offense under any statute of the United States or under the laws of any State in which the act was committed, shall be prosecuted for such contempt… This section shall not be construed to relate to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States, but the same, and all other cases of contempt not specifically embraced in this section may be punished in conformity to the prevailing usages at law.” U.S.C. Title 18 Part 1, Chapter 21 § 402. Contempts constituting crimes.

Notice it says “obstruct the administration of justice” when it is referring to contempts committed in the presence of the court.

With her attitude she wouldn’t have made a good juror anyway.

As far as attorney fee shifting, it requires a statute or a rule 11 c. 6 order.
Posted by anonymous - 4 months, 1 week, 1 hour, 33 minutes ago

what does “losing in court” mean?

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