If you are a juror and you try to use Facebook to contact a defendant, you will get be dismissed. And if you’re an imbecile like the guy in this photo, then you will get in gaol.
He is 29-year-old Jacob Jock and he has been sentenced to three days in gaol by Circuit Judge Nancy Donnellan.
Jock was one of the members of the jury in an auto negligence case last December. For some reason, he thought it would be a great idea to befriend the defendant, a woman called Violeta Milerman. When Violeta told her lawyer, the judge dismissed Jock from jury duty. But instead of leaving quietly, he posted the following on his Facebook page:
Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.
Well, haha indeed, you jerk, judge Donnellan probably thought. This is what she had to said after the two-hour hearing that lead to Jock’s conviction for criminal contempt of court:
I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.
The moral of this story: don’t be a douche. [Herald Tribune]