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Published:Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The pilot says fatigue and stress made him belligerent.
YOUNGSTOWN — An airline pilot has learned the hard way that he can’t fly away from jury duty.
The choice the judge offered — between 10 days in Mahoning County Jail and 10 days of jury duty — was a no-brainer for Kyle Rogers of Canfield. He chose the latter when he appeared in an orange jail uniform at a contempt-of-court hearing.
When Rogers failed to appear for jury duty July 7, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, administrative judge of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, ordered him arrested by a county deputy sheriff and brought before him for the contempt hearing.
Rogers was arrested at his South Raccoon Road residence Thursday afternoon and appeared Monday morning before Judge Krichbaum.
“What makes you think that you do not have to honor your obligation as a citizen of the United States to appear when you’re summoned by a court for jury duty?” Judge Krichbaum asked Rogers.
“I want to apologize for my behavior. ... It was brought about by fatigue and stress,” Rogers said.
The fatigue was from his having worked seven 14-hour days followed by a 16-hour day, Rogers explained.
The stress stemmed from his divorce and the financial woes associated with it, and from a recent in-flight emergency involving a door-seal blowout and rapid loss of air pressure in a plane’s cabin, Rogers told Judge Krichbaum.
“I was pretty belligerent,” Rogers said of his demeanor when he called from Monterey, Calif, and told Janice A. Mottram, jury bailiff, he wasn’t going to appear for jury duty.
“You were disrespectful to the court. That’s why you’re here to answer for contempt,” the judge said.
“If I take time off, I could lose my job,” Rogers said, noting that the unidentified airline he works for recently terminated 225 employees, including 70 pilots.
“You can’t lose your job by taking time off for jury duty, or your airline is going to pay thousands of times what it would have taken them to employ you,” the judge said.
“I don’t even want to be put on the radar by calling off work,” Rogers replied.
Judge Krichbaum told Rogers he would likely have been excused from jury duty or his jury service would have been delayed if he “had acted like a gentleman” in his conversation with Mottram.
“You’ve acted in a way that has frustrated the administration of justice,” Judge Krichbaum said. “I will not excuse you from jury duty because of an excuse after the fact,” the judge added.
“I want him to serve 10 full days of jury duty,” Judge Krichbaum told Mottram, adding that Rogers’ time in jail before the hearing wouldn’t count toward that obligation.
Rogers said he served as a grand juror several years ago.
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This would tend to indicate that being a jerk to the ruling class (government employees) is now a criminal offense punishable by arbitrary imprisonment by the state.
A tax paying citizen is a jerk and gets more time than many of Y-Towns thugs for the commission of violent crimes. Where are the local religious leaders demanding that the court release him from these obligations and the judge and his staff receive sensitivity and diversity training?
Has government earned this level of disrespect?
If government disrespects their citizens, what
is their punishment?
All the pilot had to do was speak respectfully when calling about his jury duty..........
Acon, the point here is not what could have happened, it is what did happen. They guy was a jerk to the ruling class (government employees/beaurocrats) and he was sentenced to 10 days. His choice was jail or jury duty.
His CRIME – being a jerk to the ruling class. He obviously needs re-educated in Right Think.
His crime was straight out refusing to attend jury duty instead of going through the proper procedure to postpone or excuse his service. If he hadn't been such a jerk when calling the baliff, she probably would have been able to guide him through the process.
“You were disrespectful to the court. That’s why you’re here to answer for contempt,” the judge said.
His CRIME – being a jerk to the ruling class. He obviously needs re-educated in Right Think.
Fail to genuflect, loose your freedom. RIGHT THINK!
He should be submitted to the Ministry of Truth and corrected also. Did he ever exist?
Please refer to George Orwells’ book 1984 to understand these references and what these actions of the court really mean. It is a quick read and well worth it.
Alternately, there was a Twilight Zone episode on removing people who were OBSOLETE. Different approach to a similar subject.
COMMENTS?
"The Obsolete Man"
o Writer: Rod Serling
o Director: Elliot Silverstein
o Producer: Buck Houghton
o Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
o Music: stock
o Cast:
+ Romney Wordsworth: Burgess Meredith
+ Chancellor: Fritz Weaver
+ Subaltern: Joseph Elic
+ Guard: Harry Fleer
"You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future, not a future that will be but one that might be. This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements , technological advancements, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the superstates that preceded it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace... This is Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He's a citizen of the State but will soon have to be eliminated, because he's built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone."
In a future society, all books and religion have been banned. Romney Wordsworth is a God-fearing librarian who has been judged obsolete by a chancellor of the State. He is granted three requests: only his assassin will know his method of death, that he die at midnight the next day, and that he have an audience. Forty-five minutes before his scheduled death, he invites the Chancellor to his room. He then informs the Chancellor that he has chosen to be killed by a bomb set to explode at midnight, he then locks the Chancellor in his room. A TV camera is broadcasting all that happens - and Wordsworth will prove who's will is stronger, his or the State's. The Chancellor is calm at first, but as the minutes tick by he begins to panic. He finally cries out, "In the name of God, let me out!" Wordsworth hands him the key, and the Chancellor runs from the room just as it explodes. When the Chancellor returns to his court, he finds he has been judged obsolete and replaced. Loyal members of the State surround him and tear him to pieces.
"The Chancellor - the late Chancellor - was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so was the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under 'M' for mankind... in the Twilight Zone."
This is from 1961, and yes, I knew dirt when it was still sand. Preserve DARPA-NET
What do 1984 and the Twilight Zone have to do with this story? Is the light punishment of ten days of jury duty really worth all of this referencing of outdated dystopian pop cultural artifacts?
Come on! He called the bailiff and said he was not going to serve Jury Duty (and admitted it was in a "Pretty Belligerent" way. Then he did not show up on July 7th to0 report for Jury Duty. Yes, the Judge was right, he cannot be fired and he disrespected OUR courts.
A lot of people are missing the point here. Unlike Judge Kirchbaum, this guy actually has to work for a living. He worked several 14-16 hour shifts and had an in flight emergency. Contrast this to the Judge's average day. Anybody who knows anything about the Mahoning County court system knows that most Judges think a 3 hour day is a long one. To Kirchbaum, an emergency would be running out of Altoids. The idea that those who actually do something productive should have to take time off work to referee the squables of the rifraf in this valley surpasses understanding. Maybee we should have professional, paid juries to handle all the he said/she said fluff and let the rest of us get on with our lives.
I can't believe there are people defending not wanting to show for jury duty. Our democracy can not function properly without a fair legal system, and much of this is predicated on the jury system. (And believe me, I've read 1984. I don't see this as Big Brother, but as the opposite really. Citizens who cede their rights and duties to the government are the ones giving in to the Big Brother ideals.)
As to judges and their work hours, I can't understand how you believe they only work three hours a day. It's true that they may be on the bench for that time, but their job certainly doesn't end there.
It seems many in the Youngstown area slept through civics.
What disturbs me most about this story is Rogers will be judging someone's innocence or guilt. I am afraid he would rubber-stamp guilty just so he could get on with his life. Police are not always right, and we all deserve a fair, impartial trial. I put blame on Krichbaum for such a crazy sentence. I would hate to be the defendant who has Rogers sitting in the jury box.
Anita,
Your reasoning is skewed. You are right, the pilot probably does work more than the judge. All the pilot had to do was inform the court of his situtaion in a timely manner and he would have certainly been excused just like the judge told him. Instead he acted like a child. It is the pilot's duty as a citizen to notify the court and ask to be excused.
Also, just because the pilot has ten days of jury duty does not guarantee that he'll sit on any juries. He just has to be there for the pool.
The pilot got what he deserved, at least he had a choice instead of just being sent to jail. IF you are called to jury duty serve it and do it gladly. You could be in the middle east and you are sentenced in the same week and whether its getting lashes or your head cut off the job gets done. If you were on trial you would want to be treated fairly and if you have a legitimate excuse most times they will let you go. This guy was lucky because reading that story he still acted like it was no big deal. In my opinion he should have got the jail sentence and then he would have got a taste of tuff justice. Good for the judge.
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