By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 14, 2008; B01

For the first six months of the year, Laurette M. Piculin lives with her elderly parents in Rockland County, N.Y. While she's gone from her house in Northwest Washington, a friend gathers her mail and sends it along.

Piculin's friend might have missed a key piece of mail last year: a second notice requiring her to appear for jury duty. That omission put the 51-year-old retired federal mediator at risk of arrest.

Hoping to send a message about the importance of jury service, the chief judge at D.C. Superior Court recently issued warrants calling for the arrests of 92 District residents who failed to show up. Twelve people have been arrested or turned themselves in this month for contempt of court, and marshals are canvassing the area for more. Those taken into custody had to pay $25 bonds and were given dates to report back to court for a final chance to explain themselves and get back on the calendar for jury service. The penalty for contempt of court could be as high as seven days in jail and a $300 fine.

"The point of this whole thing is to get people to serve on juries. It's not to lock them up," Chief Judge Rufus G. King III said.

But not everyone on the list is a jury scofflaw. The Washington Post reviewed the list and confirmed several cases of people who no longer live in the city. Two people are deceased, according to a review of records. And several residents said they never received the summonses.

King acknowledged that the computer system that pulls names and addresses from various D.C. government databases, including voter, motor vehicle and tax records, was "not current" and was being updated to provide the court with more real-time information on District residents.

Piculin, who has lived in the District for 30 years, said that she would never skip jury duty and that she has served on juries in the District in the past.

She said the friend who was picking up her mail received the first jury summons and acted on it. The friend sent a letter to the court on Piculin's behalf, stating that she was living in New York at the time. Piculin said she thought the written explanation excused her from jury duty. It did not.

"I never received any more notices, so I thought everything was taken care of at that point," Piculin said. If another notice was sent, the friend missed it, she said. "I guess I need to call them and get this straightened out."

She did, and she is to report for jury service July 22.

Anthony Weedon, 27, also learned from The Post that he was on the list, a day after he got home from being on a jury panel for a robbery case. He wasn't picked, but he said he spent about six hours waiting in the jury room. Weedon said the previous jury notices apparently went to an address that he left about six years ago. The most recent jury summons came to his correct address, and that was how he knew to come to court.

"Clearly, they're not on the same page over there," Weedon said.

Bryan D. Bender, 36, moved from the District to Alexandria about 13 months ago. The Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe said that he had his mail forwarded but that he had never received any letters from the court.

Glenda Fauntleroy, 40, hasn't lived in the District in almost a year. Soon after her summer 2007 wedding, Fauntleroy and her husband moved to Indiana. Fauntleroy said that she, too, has mail forwarded to her new home, but that she received no notices.

After she was contacted by The Post, Fauntleroy hurriedly reached the jury office and was told to fax documentation of her new residency. Days later, she received confirmation from the office that the warrant will be withdrawn.

"I've sat on many juries during my time in D.C. and am amazed that in a city as transient as the District, the courts would take such drastic measures against someone who doesn't respond to a mailed summons," Fauntleroy said. "Do they consider that perhaps people have changed addresses?"

King said the court targeted residents who received jury summonses in summer 2007 and who filled out the paperwork and sent it back to court. The residents missed the next step: showing up when they got a follow-up notice with a date to serve.

Before issuing bench warrants calling for arrests, the court ordered those on the list to attend hearings to explain why they did not report for juries as scheduled, King said. The warrants were the last step, he said, against those who did not respond.

Some District dwellers acknowledged getting a previous summons. Logan Circle resident and real estate developer Ralph J. Santora said that he remembered getting a notice last year. Due to his frequent business travels, Santora said, he asked for a deferral. With more travel, he failed to make the rescheduled date. When he got his summons for the hearing to explain his absence, he was on the road and missed that hearing as well.

"The bottom line is it was my fault," Santora, 42, said. "I didn't show up when I was supposed to show up."

Samuel J. Nimmons, Jr., 55, of Northeast said he was out of town on the day he was to go to court.

The court waged a similar crackdown five years ago, issuing warrants against about 100 people. Six were arrested, King said.

"Jury duty is a legal obligation," King said. "The point of the warrants is to get people to take jury duty seriously."

King said the warrants would only be enforced against District residents. But if people moved out of town and did not alert the court, they still could be arrested if they are stopped in the District on a traffic violation and police discover the warrant, he said.

He suggested that District residents alert the court when they move, inside or outside the city, to avoid such problems. "We don't have any way of reading your minds. If you move, let us know."

People with questions about jury service can call the court's jury office at 202-879-4604.

Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.