This has to suck. A juror of a case is spending three days in jail because he added the defendant on Facebook. Don’t poke no criminals or you may be getting poked yourself. Check the video after the jump.
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Juror Jailed For Friending Defendant On Facebook!
Word to the wise: If you’re a juror in a trial, don’t friend the defendant on Facebook, or worse, brag about being kicked off the jury committee for said friend request.
Jacob Jock, a 29-year-old man living in Sarasota, Florida, was sentenced to three days in jail on Thursday for criminal contempt of court by Circuit Judge Nancy Donnellan. The misdemeanor charge stemmed from a message he posted on his Facebook page after being dismissed from jury duty for sending a friend request to the defendant: “Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.â€
The incident began in December when Jock sent a friend request to Violetta Milerman, the defendant in an auto negligence case. The defendant informed her attorney about the request and Jock was removed from the jury. It wasn’t until Jock posted the message on his Facebook page that he was hauled into court.
Donnellan reprimanded Jock for his actions, reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, concluding a two-hour contempt-of-court hearing by saying, “I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.â€
After the three-day jail sentence was announced, Jones was taken away in handcuffs as his girlfriend cried, but she has not commented on the matter.
Jock says he meant to click on “mutual friends†because he thought he may have known the defendant but accidentally requested her as a friend.
Keeping jurors away from social media may prove to be difficult for judges presiding over trials where juries are not sequestered. This isn’t the first case in which Facebook interfered with a trial. In August 2011, a very similar incident occurred when 22-year-old juror Jonathan Hudson of Texas sent a friend request to the female defendant.
Hudson was removed from the jury and faced four charges of contempt of court. Just a month earlier, a juror and defendant in the U.K. were convicted of contempt of court after mutually friending each other on Facebook. The Guardian said it was the first case involving contempt of court and the web.
