Outrage after Black man sentenced to 10 days in jail for missing jury duty
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A 21-year-old Florida man was penalized with a 10-day jail sentence after he overslept and missed attending jury duty.
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Deandre Somerville said he has never been arrested and yet faced criminal charges after Judge John Kastrenakis sentenced him to 10 days in jail, one year of probation and 150 hours of community service for failing to show up for a schedule court case, The NY Daily News reports.
According to the judge, Somerville “inconvenienced the court” for at least 45 minutes, and that rubbed the judge the wrong way. Somerville explains that he was chosen as a juror earlier this year and the case started on Aug. 21 but he didn’t wake up until 11:30a a.m.—two hours too late to attend, he thought.
Instead, Somerville who works in an after-school programs for the City of West Palm Beach and Recreation Department, went to work for his afternoon shift thinking that it was pointless to try to attend the trial at that point.
“At work, I was looking at my phone thinking, ‘What’s the worst-case scenario that could happen?’” Somerville recalled. “I thought maybe I would get a fine or something like that.”
While at work, Somerville said he received an urgent call from his grandmother alerting him that police were at the door. His grandfather then urged him to get to the court, where he said he was arrested after he explained to the judge about the delay.
“They handcuffed me in courtroom after that,” Somerville said.
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Somerville was also ordered to write an apology letter to judge Kastrenakis who then reduced his probation and community service hours.
After outrage following the sentence, the judge however stood his ground defending the time Somerville served implying that it fit his “crime.”
“I came to conclusion it was deserving of punishment,” Kastrenakis told CNN. “Good people make bad mistakes.”
According to CNN, instead of a year of probation, Somerville will now serve just three months, according to court records. His 150 hours of community service were reduced to 30 hours, which includes reporting to the jury office once a week to give a 10-minute talk on the importance of jury duty.
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