Nineteen-year-old Kelsey Gloston left the federal courthouse this morning with a copy of the U.S. Constitution and a potent lesson learned.“I do apologize for being very disrespectful toward the system,” she told U.S. District Judge David Hittner in court, where she appeared earlier this week in chains after having been hauled in by U.S. Marshals when she failed to show up for jury duty or to answer a further order from the court.Gloston, reading a prepared speech, told the judge she had been disrespectful to jury clerks who tried to get her to come to court as ordered and she said she regrets her bad behavior.Hittner, who has sometimes been tougher on others who skipped jury duty, accepted the young woman's apology after asking her a few questions. The judge said he would not hold a contempt hearing and released her with a copy of the U.S. Constitution asking she talk to her lawyer Dee McWilliams about Article III that establishes the courts and the Seventh Amendment that guarantees jury trials.McWilliams, who handled the matter for free, told the judge this was a matter of maturity.“I'm not sure there are a lot of 19 year olds who would take jury duty seriously,” McWilliams said after the hearing. “I know one who does now.”Gloston was accompanied to court by her family. Her father Darrell Gloston had earlier said he planned to sue because his daughter was cuffed at her ankles and wrists Tuesday. But he said today he has been able to step back and get perspective and he will not sue and is just happy to get this matter behind the family.“I was not angry at the judge. I was angry at the restraints,” the father said. “As a father I was upset.”The judge had been especially incensed earlier this week that Gloston was rude to jury clerks and hung up on one of them. Gloston actually did respond to her jury summons in part. She appeared in federal court one day last week, filled out forms and was told to return this Monday to be on a panel of 60 potential jurors in a health care fraud case. Last week people who wanted out of jury duty were told to state their cases, but Gloston, who might have gotten a pass as a student, didn't speak up.When she didn't show up Monday, she told the jury clerk who called that she had a flat tire. When the clerk offered to come pick her up, Gloston said she wanted to go to class and would not come to court. When clerks called her back later to say the judge wanted her to appear Tuesday to explain herself, that's when she was rude and hung up on them. She was arrested at the Lone Star College Cy-fair campus and taken away in chains by the marshals.Gloston told reporters outside the courthouse that she knew there were 60 people and she thought as a student she could get out of it. “I shouldn't have put myself before the jury duty,” she said.
LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!! Guarantee this is one member of Generation All-About-Me that has learned a lesson about respecting authority and how the rules apply to everyone. Note her dad's knee-jerk reaction was to sue, but that he chilled out and also realized the value of the lesson learned.
Note her dad's knee-jerk reaction was to sue, but that he chilled out and also realized the value of the lesson learned.
I'm calling bullshit on this, the lawyers probably told him he would have no chance in hell of winning, so he changed his tune.
Like "no chance in hell of winning" has ever stopped anyone in this country from suing anyone else, especially when it would cause pain and embarassment for law enforcement type people (the marshals). He for whatever reason decided not to sue. That is all that matters.
The lesson here is that you don't fuck with federal judges. State/county/muni court is where you might try being a jackass. Fed court is where they fuck you up for that shit.
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