With Friends Like This: Juror Faces Contempt Charge After Suggesting Defendant Was Guilty on Facebook Before The Verdict

Hadley Jons of Warren, Michigan may want to look at who her “friends” are on Facebook. One of them blew the whistle when she indicated that a defendant was guilty in a trial for resisting arrest before the verdict in the case. Now, she faces a possible contempt charge.

On her Facebook page, Jones, 20, reportedly wrote it was “gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re [sic] guilty.” One of the friends reading the comment was defense lawyer Saleema Sheikh’s son.

Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski questioned Jons the next day and replaced her with an alternate.

Sheikh is asking for jail time.

I just participated in a panel with federal judges at the ABA conference in San Francisco on the use of restrictions in the use of the Internet by jurors and other new technical issues in trials today. Blogging and tweating were specifically raised as concerns by the judges.

We have seen similar problems recently in other cases.

Source: Chronicle and ABA Journal.

Kudos: Anonymously Yours

Jonathan Turley