Dog Selected for Jury Duty

Considering the head-scratching verdicts reached by some juries, why not have a dog serve on jury duty? According to one New Jersey resident, that may happen now that his 5-year-old German Shepherd dog, IV, got a juror summons from the local county clerk.

“I got the mail and I look at it, and I’m like IV Griner, this is my dog’s name,” he said. “I’m wondering like, What is this? Something from the county office about her vaccinations or something? Like, why is my dog getting mail?”

The letter was addressed from the Cumberland County Clerk of Courts to IV Griner, which is the exact name Barrett Griner IV says he legally gave to his dog. Barrett explained, “She’s a female, so I named her ‘IV’ without the ‘Y’ as sort of a play on words. Somebody had to physically type in that name and they didn’t pay any bit of attention to it.”

Dennis Moffa, the Cumberland County Judiciary Coordinator, says these things happen and it’s not uncommon that the computer generated summons contains name errors: ” As an example, if you had John Henry IV, sometimes the notice might just say Henry IV,” Moffa explained. “I think that the computer probably randomly picks some things that are probably not as on point as they should be.”

However, Barrett Griner IV thinks it is all pretty funny, but he is confident that IV would do well in some cases: “She [the dog] might be good for a cat burglar case or something like that.”