nirat/iStock(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — A 21-year-old man was sentenced to 10 days in jail after he overslept and missed jury duty, court records show.
Deandre Somerville, of West Palm Beach, Fla., was ruled in contempt of the court in September by a circuit court judge. Somerville did not have a criminal record prior to the judge’s ruling.
He was also put on probation for a year and ordered to pay a $223 fine, write an apology letter of no less than 100 words and complete 150 hours of community service — which included reporting to the jury office once a week to have a 10-minute discussion about the importance of jury duty, according to the records.
On Friday, Judge John S. Kastrenakes, the same judge who sentenced him in the first place, voided the order of guilty, meaning Somerville’s criminal record is gone. Somerville had already spent the time in jail.
Kastrenakes also decreased the probation to three months and the community service hours to 30.
Kastrenakes declined to comment about the case to ABC News, citing privacy laws, but said he wished he could speak “because I don’t think everybody got the facts right.”
“I just use it as a lesson learned,” Somerville told reporters at the courthouse Friday. “I had to get punished. I should have came back. I take it as a learning experience.”
As for his time in jail, Somerville said he “didn’t feel comfortable at all.”
“I never been to jail,” he said. “I’m not made for jail. Jail’s not made for me.”
Copyright © 2019, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.