Officials attribute payments for jury duty to a computer glitch and human error.

 

By Vic Ryckaert

June 06, 2002

Marion County court officials hope hundreds of people will be honest enough to return about $15,000 in jury duty checks disbursed by mistake last week.

Superior Court Administrator Mark Renner said a computer snafu combined with human error led to about 790 checks being wrongly sent. In response, his office mailed letters and stamped-return envelopes Wednesday, asking recipients to return the money. Trying to stop payment would be too costly, he said.

"In essence, we're relying on the honesty of the public not to cash it," Renner said.

He said the mistake occurred after the county upgraded the software that disburses jury duty checks. After the upgrade, a list of jurors who had served and received payment two years ago somehow merged with a new list of jurors waiting to be paid, Renner said.

The printout had the proper dates of jury service next to each name, but nobody noticed.

"The report was printed out, and human beings in my office looked at the report and approved it for payment," Renner said.

The report was forwarded to the county auditor's office, where it was again reviewed and approved for payment, Renner said.

The mistake came to the attention of court staff after people started calling the courts saying they did not deserve the money.

Renner said workers have been counseled. He said the mistake would not be repeated.

"This had never happened before," he said. "We, humans, get into routines. We didn't even think about this occurring."

Indianapolis Star

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002