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Tales of woe save jury no-shows |
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Written by Staff
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Saturday, 08 May 2004 |
Tales of woe about fallen trees, power outages, roofs ripped off by high winds and the trauma of the Virginia Tech shootings helped two Floyd County residents avoid punishment in Circuit Court Tuesday for failing to appear for jury duty last month.
Judge Ray W. Grubbs gave a pass to both Frank A. Vest and Lester F. Gillespie after they told similar stories on hardship as reasons for not showing up for jury duty on April 17.
"Your honor it was just a bad day," Vest told Grubbs. "I got up that morning to find that the wind has torn away part of a roof. Then the power went out. So I just went back to bed."
A few minutes later, Gillespie told the court he awoke to find three trees down across his driveway, forcing him to get out his chain saw to clear the way.
"And I was depressed about the shootings at Virginia Tech (the day before)," Gillespie said. "With all that was going on I just forgot about the jury duty."
Three no-shows for the beginning of a two-day sexual molestation trial in April left court officials scrambling to fill the jury pool, delaying the start of the trial for more than two hours. The trial proceeded only after the third juror finally appeared. Besides the Tech shootings on the 16th, high winds on both Monday and Tuesday of that week downed trees throughout the area and left hundreds of homes without power.
Grubbs normally takes a hard line on those who miss jury duty but smiled as both Vest and Gillespie told their stories.
"I want you to make sure that the next time you're called you report," he said to each before sending them home without fines or punishment.
"He said I could go. I'm going," Vest said to his wife as he left behind a courtroom of laughing spectators.
In other matters before the court Tuesday, Grubbs:
--Revoked the bond for James Matthew Largen and sent him to jail for violating terms of the bond. A hearing on the matter is set for July 17;
--Gave Raymond Chiron Jax a five year suspended sentence with five years probation on a reduced charge of unlawful wounding but deferred action on a breaking and entering charge for two years;
--Ordered James Robert Sargeant jailed after he tested positive for marijuana - a violation of his terms of probation. He will face a full probation revocation hearing later this summer;
--Declined to accept John William Helton's offer to serve out the remaining year of his sentence because of probation violations, setting instead a hearing for Sept. 4 because Helton has faced five previous probation revocation hearings. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 12 May 2007 )
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