Plea to miss jury duty lands worker in jail

Todd Gilly insists he's no troublemaker.

But the plumber from Mora, Minn., found himself in big trouble recently when his answers during jury selection landed him in the Kanabec County jail.

"I could see myself getting awfully frustrated having to take more time off than ... a day," Gilly said while being interviewed for jury duty, according to court records. "I don't get paid when I'm not working. I could see myself just going with the flow to get it over with to get back to work."

His responses didn't sit well with Kanabec County Chief Judge Timothy Bloomquist, who found Gilly in contempt of court and sentenced him to a day in jail.

A bewildered Gilly was taken away immediately, locked up with the other inmates, and given the standard prison uniform: orange shirt, brown pants and sandals.

While his case may be unusual, his concerns are not: Minnesota officials say more people are seeking exemptions from jury duty because they can't afford it.

In Hennepin County, the number of jurors excused for "severe financial hardship" in the Fourth Judicial District has risen 25 percent in the past year, said spokeswoman Nancy Peters. Dakota County court officials say they're fielding more requests for exemptions based on financial concerns. Rich Sletten, clerk of court for the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, said his staff is beginning to hear from more people who say they can't serve on a jury right now because they've lost their job or they own a small business.

Angela Marckel recently sat on a Ramsey County jury, missing four days of work. "If I had to be gone for more than a week, financially it would have just killed me," said Marckel, a contract IT worker. "I'm barely making it right now."

When the judge asked her pool whether anyone had a concern about serving on the trial, Marckel raised her hand and explained her situation. Then others chimed in about their own financial concerns, she said.

'Rare event'

Holding people in contempt for avoiding jury duty is not unprecedented.

Still, Donald Lewis, dean of the Hamline University School of Law and a former federal prosecutor, said what happened in Kanabec County was "a rare event."

A judge is captain of the courtroom, Lewis said, and has the authority to send someone to jail for up to 30 days for being in contempt. That said, he added that absent any display of disrespect, if a juror is simply telling the truth, then it may not rise to the level of contempt.

"I don't think it's proper to put a juror in jail unless the juror is in essence mocking the authority of the court," he said.

People do have legitimate reasons to be excused from jury duty, Lewis said, but it's up to the judge to discern when there is truly a hardship as opposed to an inconvenience. "Jury service is a hardship for everyone," Lewis said. "If a judge readily accepted as an excuse of service the fact that someone was losing income ... you'd have juries solely made up of retirees or the unemployed."

The Kanabec case

In Kanabec County, Barbara Rudquist, the public defender who was questioning Gilly and other prospective jurors for a misdemeanor assault trial, says opinions vary about Judge Bloomquist's action.

"I'm of two minds: You want jurors to be honest," she said, "but you don't want the public to get the idea that they can get out of jury duty by giving obnoxious answers."

Bloomquist said he was limited on how much he could comment, as the ruling could be appealed.

When asked whether he thought the punishment was commensurate, he said: "If I hadn't thought it was fair, I would not have imposed it. I do not think it was disproportionate."

For his part, Gilly maintains he wasn't trying to shirk his civic responsibility.

The father of five says he was just worried about losing work at a time when money's tight.

His wife does a little babysitting but that's not enough for the family to live on, he said.

His company doesn't pay for jury duty.

"Times are slow right now," he said. "I don't even get a 40-hour workweek. We're struggling to make bills as it is."

Court records show Judge Bloomquist asked Gilly whether there was anything special about his circumstance that he needed to know. "I don't believe so," Gilly replied.

The judge then issued his order, saying: "To be frank with you, Mr. Gilly, apparently you thought that I was just going to sit here and do nothing while you told us all that you intended to disregard about the law and the facts and the rights of both the State and the Defendant because it was inconvenient for you to be here. I don't intend to disregard that."

Gilly was booked and released 25 hours later. By then, the trial was over.

In the meantime, not only did he miss those two days of work, he also missed a parent meeting at school for his eldest son and a chance to watch his other son play in a championship youth football game at the Metrodome.

"I thought that I did my duty by showing up and being honest," he said. "I could've just went in there and just gone with the flow and not said anything."

Next time he's summoned, he plans to keep his mouth shut.

"I'd probably do what they want of me just to keep myself out of trouble. Is that still the right thing? I don't know," he said. "I'm still pretty bitter about it."

Allie Shah • 612-673-4488