Juror Gets in Trouble After 'Friending' Defendant

Note to jurors: Probably not a good idea to “friend” the defendant in your case on Facebook. Jonathan Hudson, 22, was slapped with four counts of contempt of court for doing just that, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Hudson attempted to contact Courtney Downing, the defendant in a case involving a 2008 car wreck, on July 18. She told her lawyer, who then told the judge, and Hudson was booted from the jury.

Afterward, Hudson contacted Downing yet again—this time to apologize and claim he thought she was someone else. Court records show that she didn’t believe him. Hudson, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to two days of community service. He was also accused of talking about the case on his Facebook page, but he complained to Downing that he was “pretty upset over this” because he “pretty much just said I was selected to be on a jury.” For more tales of court-related Facebook misbehavior, see here, here, here, and here. (More Facebook stories.)