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Judge Sentences "Racist" Juror To Indefinite Jury Duty
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 6, 2011
Modified Apr 8, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 6, 2011
Modified Apr 8, 2011
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Jury duty is a double-edged sword for most: the pleasure of participating in one of the core tenets of democracy is mixed with the reality of a tedious, long process with little pay. People literally have mental breakdowns over it! So many wear inappropriate t-shirts, or touch themselves, to escape it. And then other people try to get out of it by trashing the NYPD and minorities in the most offensive way possible. Hey, it's not like it could possibly blow up in your face, right?
It did for Juror 799, an Asian woman in her 20s who said she works in the garment industry. She was up for jury duty in the death penalty trial of Bonanno crime boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano. According to the Daily News, the juror royally pissed off Judge Nicholas Garaufis with her aggressively offensive questionnaire. Asked to name three people she least admired, she wrote on her questionnaire: "African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians." When questioned by the Garaufis on her reply, she answered, "You always hear about them in the news doing something." "Why didn't you put 'Asians' down also?" the judge asked sarcastically—only for her to reply, "Maybe I should have."
She also declared that cops are all lazy, claiming that they sound their sirens to bypass traffic jams; and she mentioned that she had a relative who was a member of the Chinese Ghost Shadows gang in the 1980s, convicted of murder and still in prison. The juror was disqualified from the Basciano trial because of her "inappropriate" comments, but Garaufis requested that she return for more jury duty until he sees fit: "She's coming back [today], Thursday and Friday —and until the future, when I am ready to dismiss her." Couldn't she have just made lots of Star Wars references?
Tagged
judge
jury duty
racism
Vincent Basciano
Vinny Gorgeous
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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