VENTURA : Jury System Justly Rewarded in Ceremony

To Carol Goehausen, the responsibility of serving on a jury is a bit frightening.

“It’s a little scary,” said the 39-year-old Ojai resident, “because you’re playing God.”

Despite her nervousness, Goehausen--who served last week on a Ventura County Superior Court jury hearing a civil lawsuit--said she agreed with speakers who lauded the nation’s jury system at a ceremony Friday.

The event, held at the County Government Center in Ventura as part of national Jury Appreciation Week, featured speeches by judges, attorneys and politicians about juries’ vital role in a democracy.

Ventura attorney Howard Cho quoted Thomas Jefferson’s statement that the right to a jury trial is more important than the right to vote.

Juries, Cho said, preserve the rights of people against potential government abuse.

“We the people in our own neighborhoods and communities get the opportunity to resolve our disputes among ourselves and to engage in democracy,” said Cho, president of the local chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the ceremony’s sponsor.

In Ventura County, each week the courts summon about 4,800 residents, whose names are randomly selected from voter registration and driver’s license records. About one-quarter of them are either disqualified from jury service or excused. Prospective jurors are called no more than once every 12 months.

People are disqualified when they fail to meet minimum requirements, including being an adult and able to speak English, court officials said. The most common reason people give for being excused is that taking time off work would hurt them financially.

Jury trials have an important function besides being a right, said Ventura County Superior Court Presiding Judge Melinda Johnson: They help citizens appreciate the inner workings of the criminal justice system.

Some jurors at the Government Center agreed that jury service is educational.

But listening to long legal arguments can be tedious, Goehausen said.

“Sometimes lawyers go on and go over the same points again.”