Muncie Star Press: Employee allegedly fired for reporting to jury duty

The Muncie Star Press has an article that caught my eye: Employee allegedly fired for reporting for jury duty According to the article:

Supervisors at a global clutch manufacturer in Jay County were threatened with criminal charges and contempt of court Tuesday for allegedly intimidating or dismissing a temporary employee summoned for jury duty.

“You are not above the government or the courts, do you understand me?” Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey loudly told one of the managers from FCC (Indiana). “You and your company are skating very close to jail time.”

. . .

Ashley Smith, a Delaware County resident, said during jury selection that FCC’s manager of general affairs Eric Garringer and receptionist Ruby Shaneyfelt told her she would be terminated if she responded to her jury summons.
. . .
At the request of deputy prosecutors, Judge Dailey on Tuesday issued warrants for the arrest of Shaneyfelt and Garringer after they failed to comply with an order to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. for a hearing on why they should not be found in contempt of court.

However, the judge stayed the serving of the warrants after Reed told him the pair were en route to Muncie from Portland. Reed blamed their tardiness on miscommunication.

So, these folks who indicated how much they thought of the legal process by failing to appear when ordered to do so, are using the brilliant defense of “she’s lying and she apparently quit.” I’ve had enough blue collar workers tell me that their employer either had or would fire them if court ordered garnishment was issued to where I’m pretty certain that kind of crap goes on. (Notwithstanding the fact that that sort of statement is self-serving in that the worker obviously doesn’t want a garnishment.)