Rochester, N.Y. – For the first time ever, the Monroe County Commissioner of Jurors has filed judgments against residents who did not return juror questionnaires.
Judge Craig Doran signed off on the $100 fines levied against four men. Two live in Greece, one lives in Brockport and one lives in Chili. They ignored eight letters from the juror commissioner. The men don’t have to pay the judgments if they complete the questionnaire.
One of the Greece men is 28 years old. He told 13WHAM News he remembers getting numerous letters, but said, “I didn’t think it was that important.”
“To be fair to the good people who serve, we can’t let the people who think it’s not important, think it’s not important and avoid serving,” said Commissioner Charles Perreaud. “People make sacrifices from their lives, from their families, from their jobs every day to come here and be jurors and our system works best when everyone is here serving.”
Monroe County has spent a lot of time and effort over the last year to increase the jury pool after a study showed a lack of poor and minority members.
Darlene Savino spent the day at the Hall of Justice and said she narrowly missed being picked as a juror.
“You dread this day, you really do. You dread coming downtown, sitting here doing nothing all day. In fact it wasn’t like that at all. It was great.”
