Awol juror opts to carry sign

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Updated: January 30, 2012 8:27PM

The juror who left during jury selection in a drunken driving death case had a choice on Monday — he could sit in jail or pay a fine.

Justin Humphries told Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. he really didn’t want to spend time in custody and didn’t have money for a fine, so Stefaniak gave him a third option — for two consecutive Monday mornings carry a sign that said he failed to appear for jury duty. Humphries opted for the third choice and soon was outside the courts building with the sign on Monday.

Stefaniak said in reviewing the law regarding contempt, he found that a contempt finding for a juror is punishable by imprisonment or fine. “It doesn’t allow for the sentence that I imposed,” Stefaniak told Humphries.

The judge said he wanted to be fair and gave Humphries a chance to be heard. Humphries apologized, but the judge said they hadd moved beyond the point for an apology to fix the situation.

Humphries earlier said he wasn’t paying attention and was focused on the possibility his mother might lose her job when he left in the middle of jury selection in the case of the state of Indiana vs. Jeffery Cleary.

Humphries, 22, said he has never had so much as a parking ticket and denied feeling pressured to pick option three — holding the sign outside the courts building for about an hour.

He’s due back next Monday, too.