Peerless: Oklahoma Man Repeatedly Shows Up Late For Jury Duty . . . And Then Misses Hearing On Contempt Of Court

Rickey Christopher, 23, obviously does not like jury duty. Many people feel the same but he is fast making jury duty into the worst chapter of his life. Christopher was previously dismissed from jury duty for repeatedly showing up late. Then when he was ordered to appear for possible contempt of court, stemming from his jury duty, he failed to appear. There is now a warrant out for his arrest from Oklahoma County District Judge Ray C. Elliott. It is a good thing that such charges are generally handled without a jury. It would be hard to find 12 peers of Christopher to appear on time to try the case.

We have previously seen some shocking cases of juror misconduct, including some cases where judges have given a mere slap on the hand for egregious misconduct. In this case, however, Christopher magnified his misconduct by not showing up for his own contempt hearing. That is some real contempt.

Christopher was a potential juror in a child abuse trial but showed up late for jury selection not once but twice. On an earlier occasion, he spent four hours in jail and Elliott dropped one contempt charge after Christopher apologized for repeatedly interrupting him. However a contempt proceeding was ordered on the repeated failures to appear on time.

Christopher has said that one of the earlier late appearances was due to a car breakdown coupled with a broken cellphone. The second time was allegedly due to a miscalculation that he thought he had time for lunch.

The contrast between judges Elliott and judges like Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge JD Watts is remarkable. Watts gave a juror a slap on the hand for leaving a jury deliberation to go to Cancun for vacation.

Source: NEWS OK