Brooklyn Man Drops Dead During Jury Duty

Jed Jacobs (via Facebook)

A Brooklyn man died yesterday while hearing testimony in a grand jury presentation in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The 49-year-old man suffered a heart attack just before the 1 p.m. lunch break.

The Daily Mail identified the man as Jed Jacobs, of Brighton Beach. His sister wrote on his Facebook wall: "This is Suzie, Jed's sister. I wanted you to all know that Jed passed away today while at grand jury where he collapsed and couldn't be revived."

The Post says Jacobs was described as an overweight smoker, unemployed, and "happy" to be collecting a check for his service on the case, which was expected to go on for about a month. After he collapsed in the court room, the assistant district attorney immediately started CPR, and court officers rushed to get a defibrillator, and shocked him three times.

There seems to be a lot of bad luck and strange stories involving jury duty this year—already, one juror has been sent to jail after making a death threat, and another juror was sentenced to indefinite jury duty after she claimed she was the most racist person ever.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in News on May 18, 2011 11:01 AM

Comments [rss]

John Stavrianos

why is the Daily Mail UK getting scoops on local stories? Way to go Gothamist....

kevd

lots of scumbags commenting on gothamist...
you people are fucking nasty.

Not Spidey, though.

whitecastlerock

Agreed. This guy was unemployed and grateful for the shitty pay of serving on a jury. Oh, but he was fat and smoked! Let's trample on his life choices.

SpideySense

Even for an overweight smoker, dead at 49 of a heart attack is still kind of young. Too many glib comments here.

RIP Jed.

Gwinny

Great to know that this is the kind of person who makes it through voir dire to decide the fates of those on trial. I know, a mean thing to say about a dead person. But still.

100

There is no voir dire for grand jury. Grand juries decide what cases will move forward to trial.

whitecastlerock

Actually it's more of a stupid thing to say about a dead person.

Gwinny

Really? Then you wouldn't mind someone with such poor judgment about his own life choices to be on a jury deciding a case for you? Let's be honest here.

whitecastlerock

I was being honest-your comment was stupid. He died while doing his civic duty. What I find more disgusting is that people like yourself would consider him less qualified based on his physical appearance.

kevd

Well, he was on a grand jury, so he wasn't deciding any cases or anyone's fate. So yes, its a pretty fucking stupid thing to say about anyone.

The selection process for Grand Jury's in Brooklyn is "you're here? you're a citizen? you speak English? You're on the jury."

Maybe they can get rid of fat people in the future though,

RabbiLaFunque

Personally, I would much prefer to have someone who makes poorly informed snap judgements based on superficial characteristics to be deciding my case.

Gwinny

Touche, my friend. Fortunately I'm pretty good at not getting on juries (I've served jury duty 4 times but never made it farther than a voir dire).

robingee

OK, you know the term "voir dire" - we get it.

robingee

Oh please. He smokes and is fat so he shouldn't be on a jury?

Rocknrope

At least he doesn't have to worry about being unemployed anymore. Death is a good way to avoid troubling yourself with retirement savings.

Guest

I think you just solved the unions' pension problems.

TheOtherBob

I'm not sure if this is just a terrible picture -- but it looks like the guy was on death's door to start with. It's always unfortunate when someone dies unexpectedly, but...man, it looks like the dude was already in pretty rough shape.