Posted on 07/17/2008 12:56:53 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Woman gives judge earful, lands in jail Obscene outburst nets Sarah Muller contempt charge in jury selection
By Suevon Lee Star-Banner
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:30 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. OCALA — A Summerfield woman said she blurted without thinking a couple choice words for a county judge during jury selection at the Marion County Courthouse Monday morning—ones which had landed her in jail by the end of the day.
ALAN YOUNGBLOOD/STAR-BANNER Sarah E. Muller comments on her case during an interview at the Marion County Jail.
click to enlarge Judge R. James McCune, Jr. listens to attorneys in 2006 in Summerfield. Jannet Walsh/Star-Banner/File
“Sometimes I get upset and I say things,” Sarah E. Muller said during an interview with the Star-Banner at the Marion County Jail Booking Center late Monday afternoon. “I didn’t know I would go to jail for freedom of speech.”
Faced with the prospect of serving as a juror and upset that County Judge R. James McCune Jr. denied her request for dismissal, the 23-year-old insulted the presiding judge by calling him a two-syllable curse word—a crude term referring to the anus — within earshot of several of the other 178 potential jurors seated in the Jury Assembly Room.
When the judge asked Muller to clarify her remark, Muller repeated it. He charged her on the spot with direct criminal contempt of the court — a second-degree misdemeanor— and Muller was promptly handcuffed by a court bailiff and taken into custody.
At a hearing later in the afternoon, McCune sentenced Muller to three days in jail and ordered her to pay court costs and fines.
“I was very upset that my excuse that I needed to go to the doctor was not as good an excuse as a lie,” she said later, referring to the judge’s decision to dismiss a woman standing ahead of her in line. If that woman, Muller argued, could escape jury duty by claiming she did not speak English well, how come she couldn’t be removed for health reasons?
She had come to court alone that morning, she said, severely irritated that she had to spend money on gas getting there, rather than the clinic to apply for Social Security disability.
Muller, who is unemployed, said she was born with a leaky valve in her heart and has had four previous heart surgeries to treat it.
“I can’t waste my money on gas to come [to court] and be able to go to the doctor at the same time. Gas ain’t cheap,” she said.
Muller is even more broke than when she arrived at court: She owes the court $50 and the Public Defender’s Office $183 for the brief counsel Assistant Public Defender Hisham Shanawany provided at the hearing.
Muller was the first to hop in line to ask that she be excused by the judge following qualifications Monday morning.
She cited poor health and the need to visit a doctor.
Finding no urgency in her situation, McCune denied her request for dismissal and ordered her to take a seat with the rest of the jury pool.
That did not deter Muller, who re-entered the line and this time, threw in the claim that she was “a racist,” in efforts to cast herself as someone unable to be a fair and impartial juror.
“I just didn’t want to do jury duty. That’s the best excuse there was,” Muller said later.
McCune denied her dismissal once again, at which point Muller insulted him.
During the hearing, McCune called two witnesses to testify about the incident: Deputy Clerk of Court Tonja Leek-Snyder, who was seated beside McCune and witnessed the entire exchange, and bailiff Larry McLemore, who had arrested Muller.
“How in the world did you think that running your mouth in such a foul, profane way would be appropriate in court, of all places?” McCune asked Muller. “Did it even dawn on you that you were already here and you might as well make the most of it?”
Muller apologized to the judge as tears streamed down her face.
“I’m very sorry for calling you that. I did not know it was illegal, and I did not mean to cause disrespect,” she said.
Muller added that cursing was “a very bad habit” of hers and that she was feeling upset, sick, and very broke.
“I’m very poor, and I barely have any money at all,” she protested. “I do not appear to be sick, but I am internally sick.”
On her charge, Muller could have faced up to six months in prison and a $500 court fine.
Muller was sobbing as she was led away to be fingerprinted following the judge’s sentence. When she turned back to face the judge, who remained seated at the bench, his hand cupped in his chin, she asked: “Is there any bond for that?”
“No,” McCune replied.
“I really wasn’t trying to make him look like a fool,” Muller said later. “If anybody looked like a fool, it was me for saying it. But it don’t matter now, because he already put my ass in here,” she said.
As for advice to others trying to avoid jury duty who don’t want to end up in jail, she advised: “Don’t say any cuss words at all. Maybe even ‘damn’ will get you kicked out.”
Suevon Lee can be reached at suevon.lee@starbanner.com or 352-867-4065.
its a beautiful thing, ne?
Muller, who is unemployed, said she was born with a leaky valve in her heart and has had four previous heart surgeries to treat it.
Nah, just tell them the police wouldn't have arrested the defendant if they weren't pretty sure he was guilty.
In California, it’s only $5/day, IIRC.
Didn’t work for me and I was on the trial for a month! Two weeks of paid JD and managed to squeeze in 40 hours a week of work the other two...
or that youre blessed with the ability to spot a guilty man just by looking at him
You’re absolutely right. The poster should not have made the inference that the woman was on ‘the public dole’. The poster should have characterized it properly and stated that the woman “was too selfish and had no respect for her own civic responsibility to be inconvenienced”. The poster might have also launched into how the woman was very willing to avail herself of the rights afforded her by our system of government but was unwilling to be personally invenienced when any of the responsibilities that goes along with those freedoms fell to her.
The woman admits that her medical appointment was just an excuse, she was just mad that it wasn’t a good enough excuse. After letting her self righteous anger overcome her she then made it painfully clear that no one had taught her that with freedoms come responsibility. She then decided that he middle of a court proceeding was the appropriate time to execrcise her right to free speech. As I taught my son early on, he has plenty of freedoms, he just needs to be sure he takes the responsibility for the outcome that goes along with them when chooses to exercise them. She actually had the nerve to act shocked when someone held her accountable for her actions. Thank goodness she wasn’t selected for the jury, her mistaken sense of entitlement with no responsibilty might have led her to make a poor decision which the rest of society would have to pay for.
I served on a petit jury twice here in my county. At the risk of sounding elitist, I will never break the law because the concept of a “jury of your peers” is bogus. I was absolutely stunned at the sheer stupidity of some of the individuals I served with.
I guess it would depend on whether the need to see the doctor was urgent. I have a feeling it wasn't.
We do seem to have a higher than normal population of twits that’s for sure. I’m not sure why that is other than the fact that Florida is a popular destination for people looking to escape reality.
Don’t speak openly about it, just have the two words written down on a business card. Show it to the prosecutor and you are on your way out the door.
Choosing jurors is serious business.
At the trial of my sister’s murderer, a bad one slipped through the selection process. It was an open-and-shut case of first degree premeditated murder, DNA evidence, video of the perp arriving at and leaving the scene of the crime, etc. This juror, who fit the descriptive used by the lady in this story, threatened to hang the jury and got the rest of them to hand down a second-degree conviction. A travesty.
Thank God another adjoining state had already convicted the animal on another first-degree rap and given him life without parole. He’ll rot there until he dies and faces a Judge who doesn’t make mistakes.
Why get out of it? Are you telling us you would be the kind of person you would not want on the jury if you were on trial? If that is what you're telling us, I'd be interested in why. Do you think you aren't smart enough or what?
By the way, if you really did do this, you are very lucky not to have been arrested.
I don’t understand people’s, esp. conservative’s, desire to get out of juries. It’s part of being in a republic. Yes, I think the “pay” is a waste. But why should juries be composed of people too stupid to get out of jury duty?
IMO, voir dire should be banned and the first 12 people who don’t have a clear conflict of interest with either the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, or defendents should be picked. No jacking jurors because a lawyer feels that juror won’t vote the way they want to.
The next day, as I walked up the court house steps to report again, I noticed the prosecutor in front of me talking to another lawyer. The following is an exact quote, as near as I can remember it.
“...they're not supposed to do that. I can tell you one thing. If I wanted to kill someone, I'd crawl a thousand miles on my hands and knees to do it in Etowah County.” (That's in Alabama.)
In other words, he was not at all happy. But he didn't prove to us that it was murder. The only thing we even debated was whether to find him guilty of manslaughter (there wasn't any doubt that he had done it, he admitted it). We didn't think a man should be punished for defending his family. Which is what he had done.
Stabbed the guy in the neck, and he bled out.
Jury duty is our right and our duty in a nation of laws. Just do it.
Sounds to me like you and your fellow jurors rendered the correct verdict.
Good for you.
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