In August, 21-year-old Florida resident Deandre Somerville was sworn onto a jury. Somerville lives with his grandparents, works in after-school programs, and takes care of his grandfather, who needs to be shuttled to physical therapy sessions. Somerville overslept the first day of the civil case he was to serve on the jury for. Not a good look for anyone. The young man then did what a lot of people do in similar circumstances: He put his head down, went to work, and pretended nothing had ever happened, hoping things might work out for him. A few days later he received a subpoena to appear before Judge John Kastrenakes. When he explained to his grandparents what had happened, they advised him to go to court and tell the truth of the situation. Somerville did this, explaining to the judge that he had overslept and had not realized the seriousness of his infraction. Kastrenakes decided that that would be the day to make an example out of someone.
For missing jury duty, Somerville received 10 days in jail, one year of probation,150 hours of community service, and a $223 fine. And while this shouldn’t matter, Somerville had a sparkling clean record, no problems with the law. He served those days, saying he prayed and mostly worried about his grandfather being able to get around, now that he wasn’t there to help. Deandre Somerville is a lot nicer about all of this than many of us would be, clearly contrite in all of his interviews with news outlets that took up the story. Most of the stories have taken a Can you believe that? Jury duty is important, and guess what, kids, you can get in trouble for skipping out on it tone. Many people skip out on jury duty, and very few, if any, receive any punishment, let alone actual jail time.
The story got picked up and passed around, and Somerville’s public defender came to court to see if Judge Kastrenakes would vacate Somerville’s contempt conviction, which might otherwise remain as a stain on his record. On Friday, Kastrenakes listened as assistant public defender Daniel Eisinger argued for vacating the original ruling, saying that Somerville is an “honorable young man, and I don’t use that word lightly at all.” Somerville read a very contrite apology letter to the court.
Kastrenakes made a statement in court to explain his wildly punitive decision, saying, “He was the only African American on the jury, representing a cross section of the community, and he decided on his own that it wasn’t worth his time to come back.” That’s not a reason for anything. Kastrenakes by all accounts has never handed out a 10-day sentence like the one he gave to “the only African American on the jury,” and it makes you wonder whether, if news cameras had not shown up, he might have left Somerville with this egregiously unfair conviction on his record.
The judge reduced the community service hours Somerville needed to serve to 30, and ordered that he speak with prospective jurors, after which he will vacate the original contempt conviction. These are all things that could have been done originally, all things that would have driven home how important jury duty is to the young man. Instead, Kastrenakes penalized Somerville with jail time, and only because his actions and abuse of power were publicized did he change his biased actions.