Juror Refuses To Stop Texting, Gets Thrown In Jail

Twenty-six-year-old juror Benjamin Kohler couldn’t stop himself from texting during an armed robbery case, and that decision landed him in jail.

The juror was taking part in a lawsuit in Salem, Oregon when he was warned by judge Dennis Graves to stop texting.

After he was given explicit directions to stop the texting spree, Judge Graves caught Kohler sending more mobile messages on several occasions.

Apparently after he couldn’t handle the juror’s lack of respect for the court and many warnings, he held Kohler in contempt.

After he issued his decision, Judge Graves said:

“The duty to serve as a juror must be taken very seriously. Every juror has the responsibility to devote his entire attention to the witnesses and evidence being presented. In this case, Mr. Kohler failed to meet his obligations and failed to honor the direction of this court. My hope is that he will use his time in jail to reflect upon his behavior.”

This isn’t the first time we have heard about jurors getting in trouble for using technology during a trial. Yesterday, our very own Dusten Carlson reported about a juror who was held in contempt of court during a sexual abuse case after bragging on Facebook that he “always wanted to f–k up a pedophile.”

Following his two days spent in court Benjamin Kohler texted the following message:

Technology can be our best friend or our worse enemy, but one thing is for certain: These jurors who keep getting into trouble do it on their own accord.

Do you think our connectivity to social networking and other forms of digital communication has eroded our common decency when dealing with other forms of communication?