I got the mail this morning and found a jury summons. Thinking it was a good teaching moment for Caroline (mainly because her teacher was out previously for jury duty) I showed it to her. I had her find the date and she told me when I was supposed to report and what my participant number was. I showed her on the back where the Disqualifications and Exemptions were and pointed out the exemption that I was going to claim. She continued to look at the summons and talking about everything that was on it. But then she got quiet. All of a sudden she says, "Well that's stupid! There's no exemption for that!" Thinking the summons was for me, I pointed out the place on the back where I was going to check off. She responded with, "No mom! It's not for you. It's for dad! He can't go to jury duty, it's not like he can cross over and go serve." It shocked me enough that I didn't say anything until after the kids were safely at my in-laws. Then, I broke down. Not again!
You see, this wasn't the first time I got a jury summons for him. I got one in 2011 and called and was told that I needed to send in a death certificate, which I did. I got another jury summons for him a little bit later, but I think this was county so I sent ANOTHER death certificate. During my planning time I called the Jury room and spoke with a lady who said that it still showed him as living at our address, and that he was listed as a "no show" for his last summons in 2011. I was also told if he missed it, there would probably be a warrant out for his arrest for shirking his duty as a citizen. OH REALLY? I informed her that trips to Heaven were usually one way, so it would be hard for him to serve. I was told that they gathered their information from one of two places and that I should call the Voter Registration people because that's where the information came from. According to the lady on the phone, the VR people still showed him as active and a new card had been issued. OH REALLY?
So at lunch I called the Voter Registration people and gave them the needed information and explained briefly that I had been advised to call from the City Jury Room because they were sending them information saying Jason was still an active voter. I also explained that my main concern was that there was a voter card out there somewhere because it wasn't at our house. She looked at her information and confirmed that he'd been listed as deceased since 2010, so the lady in Jury services had been incorrect. OH REALLY?
Since lunch was over, I had to wait until after school to call. It was okay because at least I knew that someone hadn't mooched Jason's voter card. But when I called I was again told to send in another death certificate. Here's when I got a little bit irritated and informed the poor lady what I thought of that.
I asked her if she had a pen (because they ALWAYS ask me that), and I asked her to write down some numbers. Whose numbers did I give her? I gave her the information for the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Parkland hospital, the city of Dallas (I'm sure she knew that one), the city of Richardson, Restland, and Oncologists number and let her know she could call any of those numbers and check to make sure the Death certificate I'm sure was on file SOMEWHERE in the system was valid and that Jason had INDEED passed away three years ago. Well, she didn't appreciate that.
I was told that I could do one of two things (that's how she put it)...1) I could send in the jury summons with the death certificate or, 2) I could ignore it.
To which I responded that I wasn't going to send in the jury summons with yet another death certificate and when the officer came to serve Jason his warrant I would do 1 of 2 things. I could either 1) hand him the death certificate and tell him to cross reference it with the one on file in the City of Dallas (because that's where the warrant would've originated) or 2) I could tell him that Jason wasn't at the residence but I would be more than happy to take him to Jason. I would then proceed to take the poor officer to Restland walk him up to Jason grave and simply say, "Okay. Serve him." and walk off. Then I would let him know that I had spoken to __________ (insert her name) at Jury services and was told to send in the summons with yet another death certificate or ignore it. She didn't like that.
After hanging up, I thought about what I had done to Jason's jury summons that morning. Technically I couldn't get in trouble for what I did. Because after all, his physical address is Restland and as far as my religion is concerned that is his current place of employment and job description.
Maybe I could've handled it differently. But right now, I'm about done with all of it.
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