Has it really come to this?

[puros_bran]

Has this country totally lost its frikkin mind?
If this is true it goes beyond a little stupid.. Its full blown diaper wearing, drool on the chin, cork on the fork retarded...

As reported on Steve Summers nationally syndicated Trucker show..apparently Off the AP.
A lady up near Boston supposedly filled out a section of the Census regarding pets listing Sal the cat... Sal has received a jury duty summons. The lady sent a letter to the court notifying them that Sal is a cat. She received notice that being Feline did NOT meet any of the ten requirements for being excused from Jury Duty.. She mailed them again saying Sal did qualify under the exemption of Insufficient command of the language.. She was again notified that the court does not expect or require full fluency in the English Language to serve as a juror AND that if Sal didn't report in march for jury duty a warrant would be issued....


WTF?.

 

[puros_bran]

Ohhhh.. Interesting...

According to a lady calling the program Mass uses voting rolls to select jurors..
In that case I say if Sal can speak the language well enough to vote Sal can on a jury.

 

[LL]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/922127--boston-cat-called-for-jury-duty

 

[puros_bran]

Some random googling shows that Mass does use voter rolls...the owners are trying to cover their ass..

Sal voted.. Sals got to sit jury.


Judge: "Bailiff could you confirm this verdict?"

Bailiff: " Yes sir, it says what you think it says."

Judge: " on the count of Vote Fraud the jury find the defendant Meow."


Later outside the courthouse

Defense lawyer to cameras "Yes, yes, we are pleased with the verdict. It is not what we hoped for but it is a victory none the less"

 

[MartinH]

That's just insane.

 

[talrmn35]

Pshh...people and their cats. :roll:

 

[puros_bran]

Better watch comments like that..
Shadow: The Fearless Warrior Cat is no longer content to maim, kill, and destroy.. As he has came into maturity he has set his sights on global domination.. If he's as ruthless as Emperor of the World (and by every indication he will take over the world, he's got Sal's vote) as he was as the wondering warrior comments like that might cost you your head.


Speaking of: I heard "I think Hersheys ran off.. The Llama are on the fence line"
The next door neighbors Son-in-law moved up from Texas and apparently convinced the neighbors Llama is where its at.... No big deal but every time they cross the ridge Hershey goes apeshit, he thinks he's protecting us from them.. Anyway Hershey likes to frolic in the good Senators 'vineyard' and although its never been said I imagine the good senator doesn't like it very well... So I get on my coat and shoes to go hop in the truck and retrieve him. I open the door and there he sits.. He looks at me(I swear he was grinning), thumps his tail twice and just looks back in the direction of the Llama.. No barking? He's not positioning himself between me and the threat? WTF? I study the Llama for a minute and catch the slightest movement about 10 foot from them. It registered...
Hersheys being quit and not 'protecting' me because he knows the Llama are about to die.. . I laughed so loud it startled the Llama and they ran off... Hershey didn't even look at me. He just stood up, dropped his head, and walked inside..

 

[Doc Manhattan]

To be fair, cats are pretty much constantly judging us anyway.

 

[Williamson]

To be fair, cats are pretty much constantly judging us anyway.

So true.

 

[Tommy]

Judgmental indeed!
Ours looked at me yesterday like I was some kind of idiot for spilling some of his dry food over the edge of his plate and onto the deck.

I'm serious! I hollered at my wife and said;

"Steve's looking at me like WTF?"

She said:

"Yeah? And?"

 

[Natch]

And does cat care?



I think not!

Natch

 

[CLRV]

I work for a judge and, well, you'd be shocked at the level of bureaucracy we still allow in the legal system.

We actually still use file rooms. Seriously. Just acres of file storage, all antiquated numbering systems, takes forever to get a case pulled. And this isn't counting when you ask for something from the warehouse. God help you then.

The best part is, we scan everything into computer formats, but then make retrieval almost impossible. And we require that the physical originals are present in court during session. That stems from the evidence rules and court ordered filing procedures.

Jury duty is another spectacular time sink.

I was "volunteered" to serve on a competency jury and I literally sat in some annex room of the courthouse for 4 hours, waiting on the lawyers to get everything in order. And this was a preselected pool, not a standard random pool from voter registrations. I finally pulled what little rank I have and went upstairs to get my judge to get me out of it. Felt like I was running to mom with a "buuuuuut its taking tooooo looooooong..."

These little stories serve no other purpose than a backdrop of why, I'm sorry to say, this story out of Mass. doesn't surprise me. At all. While one would assume common sense would rule, the courts aren't equipped to deal with things like this. On the flip side, you'd be shocked at the stories some people will concoct to get out of jury duty; in the clerks defense they may have initially thought that it was some whackjob saying they, or another, was a cat when they really weren't.

I can't imagine that once the owner showed up at court, with the cat, that the judge (let alone the lawyers) wouldn't instantly fix it.

Moral of the story: Don't put your cat on the census and certainly don't use your cat to vote or register to vote (which presumably is what happened here).

 

[hobie1dog]

Did she claim the cat as a dependent too?

 

[puros_bran]

Wait until PETA gets ahold of this one..
There will be a Animal quota that must be filled on every jury....lol

 

[Doc Manhattan]

On second thought, isn't a defendant entitled to a jury of his purrs?

 

[Dutch]

Things could get a lot more interesting if she had a parrot with a filthy mouth instead of that cat...

 

[Anonymous]

a jury of his purrs?

:lol!: :lol!: :lol!: :lol!: :lol!: :lol!: :lol!:

:face:

 

[RonA3597]

The DA would have to present a purr-fect case to get a conviction. :face:

 

[Thomas Tkach]

While we're at it; that purrposterous!

 

[jhuggett]

It was probably a feliney case.