A Lubbock District Judge on Monday ordered 52-year-old man to spend three days in jail after his comments outside of court about a personal injury trial forced a mistrial.

The potential juror was among 35 people potential jurors who reported to the 72nd District Court to hear a personal injury case that had been pending in the court since 2022. The trial was expected to last until Wednesday.

However, as both sides prepared their individual strikes in the case, another potential juror walked into the courtroom and informed the judge that a fellow juror could be heard ranting to three other potential jurors about the case, essentially describing it as a waste of time.

District Judge John Grace said the man reportedly admitted to making the statements to his fellow jurors and conceded that he probably should not have said them.

The other jurors the man spoke to corroborated the rant.

Grace said the man’s statements likely influenced at the potential jurors, which diminished the number of candidates that could have been selected to hear the case, which had already been reduced from 40 to 35 after a few potential jurors were excused after claiming schedule conflicts or hardships.

Ultimately, Grace determined a mistrial was necessary, which means the case will be rescheduled for a new trial.

“Our court system depends on juries being available to hear cases, and that depends on the jurors following instructions,” Grace said. “And when jurors don’t follow instructions, it disrupts the entire court proceeding, and in this case resulted in someone spending time in jail.”

He said both the plaintiff and defendant and their attorneys set aside time to appear at the trial and were unable to immediately reschedule for a new trial, which further delays the case.

The first day of a trial focuses on jury selection, also called voir dire, and, depending on the nature of the case, summons about 40-75 eligible Lubbock County residents to appear in court as candidates of a potential jury panel.

The county pays about $20 to each juror who appears during jury selection day. In Monday’s trial in the 72nd District Court, that juror pay totaled about $700, which comes out of the county’s jury fund. The county would also have to pay the next pool of jurors summoned for a potential new trail.

Grace could have sent the offending potential juror to jail for up to six months and order a $500 fine after holding him in contempt of court.

“I felt, given the commitment and time the parties had devoted to this case and what we were asking the jury to do, which was essentially give up three days of their time – I thought a three-day punishment fit the nature of the infraction,” Grace said.

During the voir dire process, the judge warns the members of the jury pool not to discuss the case outside of the courtroom before they’re released on a break.

Grace had made the warning three times before he learned of the offending juror’s statements.

Jurors are typically asked during the selection process about their thoughts on the case and the man could have expressed his concerns about it then, which could have led to him being excused from service.

However, Grace said no one responded when the attorneys asked the potential jurors for their opinions.

Grace said he had the potential juror arrested in front of his fellow potential jurors to show them the consequences of disobeying the court’s instructions.

“I specifically asked the jury panel to go out and talk about this in the community as a example to the rest of the community of how seriously we take the obligation to serve as a juror,” he said.

This is the second time this year that a Lubbock County District Judge sanctioned a potential juror for misconduct.

In May, 140th District Court Judge Douglas Freitag issued a show-cause hearing for a juror who failed to respond to a summons for a criminal trial in April, which also resulted in a mistrial when the court ran out of potential jurors after attorneys used up their strikes.

In that case, Frietag held the juror in contempt of court and also sentenced her to a few days in jail. However, the judge suspended the sentence on the condition that the potential juror successfully appear for jury duty when she is next summoned.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Potential Lubbock County juror’s out-of-court rant lands him in jail