G'day, mates! Here's a Fried Friday that's fair dinkum, it is.
DATELINE: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
2 Aussie men were in court charged with various drugs and conspiracy counts related to a large amphetamine operation, and a rather significant, tricky case, this one. Stands to reason it was a jury trial, and it was not going to be an open and shut case. It quickly 'drug' on.
After 3 months of what seemed like endless testimony from 103 witnesses, cross-questioning, motion filings, sidebars, and evidence exhibits out the wazoo, a great deal of time, energy, and money had been invested by many involved in the case, including the jurors.
The taxpayers' bill at that point was up to $947,000, just shy of a million dollars.
One day, one of the defendents told the judge he observed something unusual in some of the jurors. As they lifted their eyes and listened, they would bend their head back down and write lots of notes. Seems a normal thing to do. But not to write vertically...
Yep, the judge agreed and thought it odd that some 'notes' were being jotted up and down, not left to write, and upon inquiring the foreman about this odd action, she revealed the truth:
She and 4 other jurors regularly filled out Sudoku puzzles when they got bored. One juror was quoted as saying they helped him focus his attention on the trial by keeping his mind busy.
Uh...okay.
Bottom line, after the 3 months and a million bucks, a the case was suspended and will begin anew as soon as they can seat a new jury.
Hopefully they'll pick ones without puzzled expressions.
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