Postal Service Deliberates Policy for Jury Duty : Courts: U.S. rules are being re-examined after employees earned full pay while serving for months as Ventura County grand jurors.

U.S. Postal Service officials, concerned that three employees earned their full salaries while serving for months on the Ventura County grand jury, are re-evaluating their national policy on jury duty.

Two postal workers served for a year and one for six months investigating local government and handing down indictments on the watchdog panel. On days they could have returned to work, they instead often used their grand jury status to ride on patrol with local police, court records show.

Confronted with complaints, regional postal authorities in Van Nuys have asked top administrators in Washington to clarify the agency’s jury-service policy.

“This is something the Postal Service is looking at as a whole,” said Terri Bouffiou, spokeswoman for the Postal Service in Southern California. “It’s got to be looked at as an issue for the entire country.”

Postal officials said they initially objected to granting the workers so much paid time off, especially since the employees volunteered to serve on the grand jury.

But when they questioned the process, postal authorities said, the courts told them the workers already had been put under subpoena and placed on the grand jury.

The workers did not inform the post office that they were applying for the grand jury, Bouffiou said.

Ordinarily, the Postal Service pays employees who serve as jurors or witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings. The agency allows workers to sit on grand juries, but not usually with pay, Bouffiou said.

The grand jury has long been popular with retirees, who have time and money to spend a year as participants.

In July, 1994, though, two postal workers, Hector Calderon and David Cuellar, joined the 1994-95 grand jury. Cuellar of Moorpark was named panel foreman, and Calderon of Oxnard was picked as foreman pro tem.

Postal employee Diane Evans of Simi Valley was an alternate. She became a regular grand juror in January after another member left the panel.

Other than the postal workers, the only other working person on the 19-member grand jury was a civilian technician from the Point Mugu Navy base. But he retired from his job midway through the session. The remaining members were retired.

At its first meeting in July, 1994, the grand jury agreed to work only four days a week to cut back on expenses, jurors said. Grand jurors earn a $20 per diem fee and are reimbursed for their mileage.

With the exception of the postal employees, everyone else seemed to adhere to the four-day workweek agreement, according to records and jury members.

Though their colleagues generally ended their workweek every Thursday, the three postal employees regularly billed the county for all five weekdays.

Eventually, some other grand jurors began complaining to Postal Service officials, who started making inquiries to the court about the grand jury schedule.

In April, the Postal Service contacted the court with a dozen questions about the grand jury, court officials said. The questions included: Can someone volunteer for the grand jury? What is the schedule of the grand jury on a weekly basis? Is there a way for an employer to receive notification of the number of hours worked by an employee serving on grand jury?

Court officials could not answer many of the questions, saying that the grand jury “is an independent entity” that meets when and where it wants.

But attendance records show that instead of returning to the Postal Service to work on most Fridays, the postal employees either reported to county offices to complete paperwork for the grand jury or rode on patrol with officers from the county’s six police agencies.

Evans, a postal clerk in Los Angeles County, went on four such police field trips on days the entire grand jury chose not to meet, attendance records show.

Calderon took 29 Friday ride-along trips with area police officers, records indicate. Thirteen of those visits were with his hometown Oxnard police force, records say.

In an interview, Calderon defended his police ride-alongs.

“As a grand juror, I got to see what exactly happens in a police car and what happens with the officers and what they go through,” said Calderon, 36, who supervises mail carriers at the Thousand Oaks post office.

He also defended his 13 Friday trips with Oxnard police.

“I probably should have went out more,” Calderon said. “I wanted to get with different officers.”

On several Fridays throughout the year, Calderon did return to his mail job in Thousand Oaks. He would not say exactly how many times he went to work during his year as a grand juror. Postal officials said that Calderon and the two other employees were paid in full for the time spent on the grand jury. The postal workers were required to turn over their per diem checks.

Court records show that Cuellar, a postal clerk in Los Angeles, took 22 Friday ride-alongs with police officers. Neither Cuellar nor Evans could be reached for comment.

Ventura County Superior Court Presiding Judge Melinda A. Johnson said she was unaware of the complaints against the grand jurors until the court received the letter of inquiry from postal administrators. The grand jury operates under the auspices of Ventura County judges. Johnson presides over the selection of grand jurors.

She said each postal worker performed admirably as grand jurors. She reserved her highest praise for Cuellar, her handpicked foreman.

“He was a real leader,” Johnson said. “He was the first foreman I have had to pick for a grand jury, and I’m real proud of myself.”

One grand juror, who acknowledged complaining about the postal workers, said he thought they should have been going to their mail jobs every Friday.

“My impression is that they rarely, if ever, went back to the post office,” the grand juror said. “The basic principle of the post office allowing people to serve on the grand jury is good. But I think these people abused their privileges.”