One Angry Man
Capp entered the courthouse, and making his way past a group of other people, stopped to look at the paperwork that had come to him in the mail. He looked at the arrows on the wall but didn't get an answer where he was supposed to go. He went upstairs to a clerk's office and held up his papers, "I'm here for jury duty."
Without even looking up, the redheaded female clerk who looked to be in her late 20s, pointed and said, "You need to go down the hall then."
"But I'm not supposed to be here," Capp told her.
That got her attention and she looked up. "You were summoned?"
"Yeah."
"Then you need to go to the courtroom down the hall," she told him.
"But I filled out the form and told them why I can't be here," Capp said.
"Did you receive another summons?" she asked.
"Yes. I called here and explained why I can't be here," Capp said.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember talking to you," she told him.
"I don't think I did talk to you," he told her. "The woman I talked to sounded..."
The woman arched her eyebrows, waiting for the last word.
"Black."
"That's Jamie Archer, she's the clerk downstairs," the woman said.
"Well I told her I can't be on the jury," Capp told her. "She said I'd have to see the judge and explain it to her in person."
"That's your right," she replied.
"But where is the judge?" Capp asked.
"In her chambers."
Capp nodded slowly, then asked, "Where's her chamber?"
The clerk looked at the clock and told him, "You need to head over to the courtroom, everybody needs to be seated in ten minutes."
"But I need to talk to the judge," Capp said.
"You'll just have to explain your situation when you're called," she said simply.
Capp sighed and shook his head and headed out of the office and followed the arrows down a set of twists and turns before he came to a line of people who were being wanded by security before they were allowed in the courtroom. Rolling his eyes, he stuffed the paper in his jacket pocket and took his place in line. 10 people got in ahead of him, and he passed through the metal detector and held his arms out to the sides as the security guard wanded him before giving him the okay to go in.
The courtroom was full of people who were all murmuring to each other while they waited for the judge to arrive, most of the gallery seats were full. He found an empty section a few rows down from the entrance, and sat down in the third one and waited.
"Excuse me," a voice drew him out of his thoughts.
Capp turned and saw a 30-something blonde woman in gray college sweats and white sneakers and she asked him, "Is somebody sitting here?"
Capp turned and looked behind him and saw the rest of the bench was empty. He shook his head and scooted over so she could sit down.
"You're here for jury duty too?" he asked.
"Not if I have anything to do with it," she said with a small laugh as she seated herself next to him.
"I'm not supposed to be here either," he told her.
"You been called before?" she asked.
"Uh...once...long time ago."
"This is the 6th time they've called me," she told him. "Most of the time they just settle out of court before this point, I was hoping they would again."
Capp nodded in understanding. He turned towards her and held his hand out. "I'm Harold."
"Nice to meet you," she shook his hand, "I'm Thelma." She sighed as she looked to the front and said, "I hope I'm in the first batch they call so I can get the hell out of here."
"Any particular reason?"
"Yeah, I work nights at a call center and I can't take a week off of work for what they pay jurors," she answered. "You?"
"I'm a firefighter," he answered.
Thelma straightened in her seat a little and looked towards the door and asked, "You supposed to be working today?"
"Tomorrow," Capp told her.
"Damn, I guess they really do pick everyone at random," she commented.
A door opened, a court officer came in and announced, "All rise for the Honorable Judge Louise Claxton."
Everybody stood up as a middle aged woman entered the courtroom and took her seat and told them, "You may be seated."
The judge talked for several minutes about why everybody was there and how it was going to work, introduced the court reporter and explained the necessity of verbal and coherent answers for her sake, and added that those who hadn't shown up would be paid a visit by law enforcement, and for those present to come to the jury box as their names were called. Several names called turned out to be no-shows, seven people were already called to the box when Thelma's name was called, she got up and joined the others, then the rest of the box was filled. There were 6 metal folding chairs in front of the jury box for alternative jurors.
"Harold Capp."
Showtime. He stood up, walked down the aisle, and took his spot in the front row. After another 10 minutes, the rest of the chairs were filled as well. The judge went over questions about did anybody have any medical problems that would make it difficult for them to sit there for several hours each day during the trial, did anybody have a hearing problem that might make it difficult for them to understand what was being said, etc. A few people answered as such. The judge explained that they were there for a criminal trial, and it would be up to them to study the evidence presented and determine if the defendant was innocent or guilty. She also told them the trial was expected to be 5 days, and asked if anybody had any reasons why they believed they wouldn't be able to sit on the jury for a week, work, family emergency, etc. Several hands went up, Capp's included, but despite him sitting in the front row, the judge didn't get to him right away. Instead he had to listen to the people around him talk about jobs they had, pets they had to take care of, children or elderly parents they had to tend to. After a while he got tired of waiting and put his hand down, and the judge must've forgotten because when everyone else was done answering, she didn't question him. Then he realized the woman he'd been sitting with hadn't answered, he turned in his seat and looked back at her, and she just shrugged. The look in her eyes suggested she was waiting for another question to put in her two cents. Capp turned to the front again as the prosecutor and the defense walked in, as did the defendant, who was dressed in fancy civilian clothes and not walking with anything shackled up. He listened as both lawyers got up to talk separately, stating that the defendant, one Steven Grady, was arrested on charges of arson and murder, accused of setting fire to an apartment complex he owned in an attempt to collect on the insurance, in which one Phyllis Marshall, age 87, died in the fire. Capp's hand immediately went up again.
"Sir, you have to wait for someone to ask you a question," the judge told him.
At 51 Capp had a reputation as the goofball of the bunch, but even he knew not to get stuck with a contempt citation, so he kept what he was going to say to himself and folded his arms against his chest as he waited. A couple minutes later one of the lawyers asked if anybody had ever worked for the CFD, did they know anybody who worked at CFD, that would in any way impair their ability to remain impartial. Capp's hand went up again, but once again he was passed over for someone else.
"Yes, Miss, what is your name?" the lawyer asked.
"Thelma Ferber."
Capp turned and looked back at the woman he'd been talking to, now she was sitting up straight in her chair and looked like she was ready to drop the ball.
"And do you have a reason you believe you wouldn't be able to remain impartial if selected for this jury?"
"Yeah," she answered without missing a beat, "I used to date an arson investigator who was very opinionated and liked to talk about his work while we were together."
Her voice was convincing enough but there was something in her eyes that told Capp that that was a bold faced lie, struggling to maintain a straight face himself, he turned back to the front and raised his hand again. But he was once again overshadowed by other people who used to be volunteer firemen, who had firefighters in their family, it did not seem possible to Capp that so many people in the first 18 selected should've been able to fit that category. After a while he got tired of waiting for everybody else to answer, so to make sure he wasn't passed over this time he raised both arms high over his head and waved them to get somebody's attention.
"Yes, you..." the attorney consulted the list, "Mr. Capp. Is there a reason you feel you wouldn't be able to remain impartial if selected for this jury?"
"Yes," Capp answered simply.
"And what is that reason?"
"Well for one, I'm a currently active firefighter at Firehouse 51," he answered.
There was a stir of people murmuring, and the defense and his client exchanged a mutual look, as did the defense and the prosecution.
"Did you know when you came here today what this case was for?"
"No, but I tried to explain to the court that I couldn't serve on this jury because I'm on shift for two of the five days of the trial...but I guess somebody didn't get what I was trying to say because I was told to come in anyway, and that I'd have to explain my situation to the judge, but there wasn't time for that because they were already calling everyone in. But there is another reason I don't feel I could sit on this jury with a shred of impartiality."
"And what is that?"
Capp looked at the lawyer in the expensive suit, and without missing a beat he explained, "Because five years ago, we at 51 responded to a building fire which turned out to be a small business the defendant co-owned, who we believed intentionally torched the building so he and his partner could collect on the insurance. The arson squad was brought in to investigate and they determined that there had in fact been an accelerant used at the source of the fire, but there wasn't enough physical evidence to tie Mr. Grady back to it given fires tend to eat up all evidence of arson, hence why it is one of the hardest crimes to prove. However I can say that the investigators were forced to sit on a lot of evidence they found, and commented if anybody could've brought a civil suit against Mr. Grady for damages caused by the fire, they would've been able to present far more evidence they found in their investigation, than they would legally be allowed to testify to in a criminal trial."
Half of the courtroom was silent, the other half was abuzz with this newfound information, and the defense attorney looked like he was going to choke.
The judge noted the time and said they would be taking a 15 minute break so the lawyers could make their decisions about who they would be picking for the jury. Capp left the room with everyone else, and he heard a familiar voice behind him and turned to see Thelma running to catch up with him.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" she asked.
"Yeah," he answered, "I made damn sure nobody in that courtroom can possibly think that son of a bitch innocent. The daycare next door to his business caught fire that day, three kids were treated for second degree burns, seven for smoke inhalation, but nobody could touch the bastard."
"I can hear that lawyer now, 'Strike for cause, this potential juror knows too much!' If he doesn't try to call the whole thing a mass conspiracy to taint the jury pool, I'll be surprised. Why the hell did they make you show up?" the blonde woman asked him.
"That's what I've been trying to find out," Capp told her. "I told everybody I couldn't be here, nobody listened, someone said tell the clerk, the clerk said tell the judge, the clerk here isn't the same clerk I talked to, and before I could find out where the judge was, they were bringing us in," he explained.
She laughed and said, "This will be one case nobody will forget."
"Did you really date an arson investigator?" Capp asked her.
"No," she answered, "but it sounded like a good way to get excused." She stifled her smirk and said more seriously, "Oh but I feel horrible about it after what you just did."
He smiled at her and nodded, "It's okay, I get it. Nobody wants to be here."
"I can't afford to be here. I work nights so I can get a few hours' sleep at the crack of dawn, so I can stay home with my daughter until she starts kindergarten," Thelma explained, the burnout clear in her voice.
"How old is she?" Capp asked.
"Three. My mom watches her while I'm at work, when she starts school I can switch to a daytime job, but I'm not having her raised by strangers her whole life, there's going to be enough of that when she actually starts school. I want her to remember me when she grows up, that I was there."
Capp felt the smile on his face widen even more. "That's nice. They didn't have as many kids in daycare when I was growing up but my mom-"
A court officer informed everybody in the hall that they needed to return to the courtroom, and everybody was asked to return to their original seats in the gallery. The judge came back out and announced, "We are going to call some people's names to come back down to the jury box."
A few names were called, but Capp wasn't among them, and neither was Thelma. When they finished addressing people, the judge told the people still in the gallery, "If you were among the first group of people called earlier, and you did not hear your name called, you are excused from jury duty and are free to leave, you will be excused from jury duty for a year, and on your way out see the clerk about being paid for your services. The court thanks you for your time."
One by one, people got up and piled out of the courtroom. Behind them, more names were being called for more people to come to the front.
"Of course you realize," Thelma said as they walked down the corridor, "you just guaranteed that defense is going to push for a change of venue, and they'll have to start all over again."
"Probably," Capp replied, "but at least it's going to make things a little harder for that prick." He looked around and finally asked her, "Where is the clerk I have to see?"
She laughed and said, "Come on, I'll show you."
