My husband was involved in a case here. He was a member of the local Plan Commission. The Commission held a meeting to discuss the Master Plan for the City, which was noticed in the newspaper of record as usual. The neighborhood turned out (which shows they knew about it) and some of the Aldermen showed up.
One disaffected neighbor sued the Plan Commission because he said the wording in the announcement was not correct and because more than 2 Aldermen attended which, legally, becomes something called a "walking quorum". A "walking quorum" is an esoteric distinction which means that presumably the 2 Aldermanic members who came to the meeting could have blocked any decision taken later.
In any case, all of the Plan commission was found guilty, even though they had nothing to do with publishing the notice, or the wording of it. The City Clerk (a paid employee) takes care of publishing and wording all public notices. Yet, the unpaid Plan Commission was found guilty of something they didn't do and never saw.
When they were choosing members of the jury, they allowed the spouse of one of my husband's employees to sit on the jury, a conflict of interest to be sure. My husband (her husband's boss) was one of the accused!
I was summoned once for a big federal drug case, because of a personal emergency I misread and didn’t show up. I was threatened with arrest...I called the number and explained my mother had had open heart surgery and had a staph infection and was in the hospital for months and I was an emotional wreck. I apologized and asked her what I could do, she put me on hold and came back on telling me to write a letter explaining my situation and I would be excused as if I had served. This would mean I wouldn’t be called again for years. I have never been summoned since.
My mother’s roommate in the hospital...her husband was the DA there.....he advised me to tell the judge when asked that I think all drug dealers should get 20 years in jail.....it would allow the judge to pull me for being biased and not force either side to use one of their chances to pull someone. He told me federal drug cases can put me at risk. He thought I was too distraught over my mother to serve anyway, which was why he advised me to do this. He told me it is not unheard of for jurors in cases like that to be threatened...he really, really did not want me to serve. Kind of blew my mind, but I never had to go.