You meet someone new and what's one of the first things you do when you get home? Find them on Facebook, of course! But that might not be the smartest idea when you've been picked to serve on a jury ... and the person you're friending is the defendant.
A Sarasota, Florida, man is now facing jail time for reportedly doing just that, according to WTSP. Jacob Jock allegedly sent a Facebook friend request to the female defendant, who didn't respond but turned around and told her lawyer.
As we saw with the Conrad Murray trial, lawyers use Facebook and Twitter to screen potential jurors. So it should be no surprise that the court is paying close attention to what jurors are doing on social networking sites.
Jock was reportedly caught joking about his dismissal later on his Facebook page. "He went home and made a joke out of it and said, 'Ha, ha, ha, I got out of jury duty,'" civil trial lawyer Damien Mallard told WTSP (Mallard served as the plaintiff's lawyer).
And it's those comments that caused the judge to find him in contempt of court. A new hearing has been scheduled to discuss the incident. If Jock is found guilty, he could face jail time, according to WTSP.
As bad as jury duty may be, serving jail time is way worse. Maybe the judge will take a page from this guy's story and make Jock come back to the courthouse and stand outside with a sign saying, “I tried to skip jury duty by friending the defendant on Facebook.”
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