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Judge gives 'Juror No. 799' indefinite jury duty after she makes racist remarks on questionnaire

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, April 6th 2011, 4:00 AM


Coomer/AP File Photo
Juror No. 799 was up for jury duty in trial of Bonanno crime boss 'Vinny Gorgeous' Basciano.


An incensed federal judge sentenced a racist Brooklyn woman to indefinite jury duty on Tuesday after she trashed the NYPD and minorities.

"This is an outrage, and so are you!" Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis told the woman, holding up her bile-filled juror questionnaire.

Juror No. 799, an Asian woman in her 20s who said she works in the garment industry, was up for jury duty in the death penalty trial of Bonanno crime boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano.

It didn't take long for her to start looking worse than the defendant.

Asked to name three people she least admired, she wrote on her questionnaire: "African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians."

When the judge asked why she answered the question that way, she replied, "You always hear about them in the news doing something."

She also declared that cops are all lazy, claiming that they sound their sirens to bypass traffic jams.

Garaufis flipped forward several pages in her questionnaire.

He landed on the page where she had said she had a relative who was a member of the Chinese Ghost Shadows gang in the 1980s, convicted of murder and still in prison.

"Why didn't you put 'Asians' down also?" the judge asked sarcastically, referring to her list of least-liked people.

"Maybe I should have," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Taryn Merkl requested that the woman be disqualified from the Vinny Gorgeous case because of her "inappropriate" comments. The motion was granted.

It is not unheard of for people to try to get out of jury service by making ridiculous statements concerning their views.

It was unclear Tuesday whether that was this woman's motive.

And if it was, it didn't work.

Indeed, the woman was going to be seeing a lot of Brooklyn Federal Court.

"She's coming back [today], Thursday and Friday - and until the future, when I am ready to dismiss her," Garaufis said.

One thousand prospective jurors have filled out questionnaires for the Basciano case, approaching the Eastern District of New York record of 1,089 summoned for the late Gambino boss John Gotti's trial 20 years ago.

Nearly half of the jurors are struck before they even get to court for questioning due to language barriers, fear of the Mafia or their extreme views for and against the death penalty.

The panel members that do get selected for the trial will be anonymous and transported to the courthouse by U.S. marshals to thwart any possibility of jury tampering.

Source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/06/2011-04-06_verdict_yer_a_joke_judge_forces_woman_to_eternal_jury_duty_after_racist_remarks_.html

Putting aside the woman's comments, the judge is violating her rights if he makes her show up longer than is legally required. Jury duty is not In Perpetuity. If he took exception to her attitude, it would be within his right and authority to give her a stern reprimand but that's about it.

http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/jury_faq.php

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How often must I serve jury duty?
Under Federal law, a person cannot be required to serve jury duty more often than once every four (4) years. If you have served in the United States District Court or a New York State Court within the last four (4) years, and wish to be excused, please mail a copy of your official jury certificate, together with our summons, in the return envelope.

How long will I serve?
If you are selected as a juror on a case, you must serve until the conclusion of the case, even if it is longer than the time described below. Jurors should be prepared to remain the entire day. The Court’s normal hours of operation are 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (8:30-5:00 in White Plains.)

If summoned to jury duty in Manhattan, your service may be as long as 2 weeks, from the first day you report to the courthouse.If summoned to jury duty in White Plains, you will be on call for approximately one month.

I think that's a bit far and a dangerous president. Even if her remarks upset him, we can't have judges going around and giving indefinite jury duties to the people who say things he doesn't like on the questionnaire.

I understand why he did it, but it still wasn't necessary. It's still funny though. I know people who've said some bogus shit to get out of jury duty. People need to stop trying to avoid it. Most of the time, they're going to put you on a bullshit case anyway.

Nystyle709 wrote:

I understand why he did it, but it still wasn't necessary. It's still funny though. I know people who've said some bogus shit to get out of jury duty. People need to stop trying to avoid it. Most of the time, they're going to put you on a bullshit case anyway.

Usually there's not much to it. Not sure what I would do in this particular situation if I'm being honest. Even I would be a little concerned about being a juror in a mob trial. I think I saw The Godfather too many times. Or Goodfellas..The Sopranos...

But she went above & beyond to try to get excluded. Still think the judge is wrong for the "when I am ready to dismiss.." though.