Jury Duty Leave from the Muncipality

Today's ADN reported that

U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick on Monday denied Kohring's request to interview a member of the jury that convicted him in November on federal bribery charges.

This whole thing sounds fishy like a lot of what Kohring's attorney has filed, starting with his attempt to throw out all the evidence found in Kohrning's office.

I had just gotten back to Anchorage when I read Friday's story about this juror. I was struck by his claim to have had to take vacation time to serve on the jury.

He works four 10-hour shifts a week as a People Mover bus driver. After an eight-hour court day, Fritsch said he was told at work that he either had to put in another two hours for the city, or take vacation time.

It was my understanding that the Municipality of Anchorage, like nearly all public employers, has a very liberal jury duty policy. So, when I was reminded of the story by today's article I called the Employee Relations department of the Municipality and asked what sort of jury duty accommodations were made for people mover bus drivers. I was told they don't have to take vacation time for jury duty. They are covered.

Obviously, they couldn't talk about specific employees, and I know there are always situations that are out of the ordinary - if, for example, Fritsch didn't tell them beforehand he was going on jury duty. His account of things, barring unusual circumstances, doesn't square with Municipal policy on jury duty.

I attended the Anderson, Kott, and Kohring trials last year and only missed a couple of days due to other commitments. Judge Sedwick seemed to bend over backwards to make sure everything was fair. In the long and tedious process of choosing jurors for such well publicized trials, he treated each juror with a voice that gave respect and no hint that it was the 20th time he'd asked the same questions that day. He was practical about moving on when something wasn't relevant to the outcome, but gave both the prosecution and the defense all the time they needed if something was important.

So if Sedwick dismissed this, then I'm convinced he gave it careful thought and had good reasons.