If you’ve ever overheard teenagers and other young adults talking about their hundreds of Facebook friends, it’s probably not suprising to you that they will send a friend request to just about anyone they might only "kind of know" in real life. However, a 22-year-old recently "friended" the wrong person while serving as a juror in a car crash case in Texas.
Jonathan Hudson, a 22-year-old pizza delivery guy, was recently charged with four counts of contempt of court for sending a Facebook friend request. The biggest problem with this seemingly innocuous move? He sent the request to the defendant in the case! The defendant, Courtney Downing, told her lawyer about the friend request and Hudson was subsequently kicked off the jury and charged with contempt of court. But Hudson wasn’t finished with his Facebook escapades yet. After getting kicked off the jury and charged with contempt of court, he wrote to Courtney:
I’m pretty upset over this… I guess you know what it feels like to be prosecuted too. Good luck with everything.
After pleading guilty, Hudson was sentenced to two days of community service. That’s pretty lucky, considering another juror in the UK who decided to "friend" the defendant in a multi-million dollar drug case was sentenced to eight months in prison.
