Addendum.

One of the public defenders who was there was a regular at the one (Thai) restaurant where I used to work at, which I had been wondering about, whether that would happen or not for a trial during jury duty, whether she would surface or not in some capacity.

They do ask you if you know or have associations with any witnesses, any of the other jurors, any of the courtroom staff or lawyers etc., and I would have had to 'fess up to that, just like how the one nurse-practitioner at my doctor's office said that she knew another juror i.e. me (although she would not say how, because she said that HIPAA prevented her from disclosing that -- very professional of her!).

Anyhow, that public defender was honestly one of our favorite regular customers, and she didn't socialize with us or anything, but she was always very nice and pleasant, and we'd try to do her special favors, like once she was in late for lunch and she was sitting out on the patio and waiting for people and she said something about how she was hungry, so I offered to bring her out her salad from the lunch special right then, since that's what she'd be getting anyways and we could "bend the rules" and get it to her ASAP without her formally placing an order and then she could place her entree order with the rest of her party once they arrived.

And, too, once when I was at the table refilling water or prebussing plates I overheard her talking to a friend about a thing with her kid and summer camp, where he said that he wanted to go but then right before it started he wanted to back out, and so as she relayed to her friend that she had said to him, she was like, "Hey, buster, we asked you before and whatever you decided would have been fine, but you committed, so we need you to follow through with that commitment." 

I mean, I didn't know her, and it took me a long time to connect her to the name that appears in the newspaper, but still, she was a regular customer who I waited on for a period of like three to three-and-a-half years, and that's not nothing.

I recognized one or 2 of the other lawyers, too, but they were more neutral, whereas with her, she built up so much goodwill over the course of those years, that I had strongly positive impressions of her before she even began speaking, and I honestly felt like I would have hands-down paid more attention to whatever she said before any of them started speaking, though of course I wouldn't have felt obligated to please her with my decision, and none of the lawyers including her had ever surfaced yet at the new restaurant where I've been working since January.

Again, if I had been called up, I would have said as much, as well as mentioned that she was a "top-tier" customer who was a favorite of a lot of the staff, whether she knew it or not.

I wonder what the judge would have thought of that, or the other lawyers who came into the restaurant.