DEAD MAN'S JURY SUMMONS UPSETS WIDOW.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

It was more than two years ago that Moti Arazi was gunned down outside his Pacoima auto shop.

But death itself may not be reason enough to escape the long arm of the jury summons, according to a Los Angeles Superior Court letter addressed to Arazi.

``Even though you may have legal grounds to be excused,'' the form letter states, ``the law requires that you complete and sign the Prospective Juror Affidavit.''

Moti Arazi's widow, Josie Arazi, was stunned.

In April 1995, the 54-year-old owner of an auto body shop was killed by a business associate following an argument over money. The killer was sentenced last year to 46 years in prison.

And Josie Arazi still was struggling to get over the loss of her husband when the first jury questionnaire arrived.

She scribbled on the back of the questionnaire an explanation that her husband was dead and mailed the document back to Superior Court. But just this week she received another letter addressed to her husband directing him to answer a host of yes or no questions about his qualifications for jury duty - questions including: ``I am able to read and understand English.''

Josie Arazi said she was seething with anger over the incompetence, and then called the court's juror services. ``It was obvious to me that no one read what I wrote there,'' she said.

Gina Stevenson, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury program coordinator, spoke with Josie Arazi and apologized for the mistake.

If court workers had read the widow's reply to the first jury summons correctly, then they would have instructed Josie Arazi to send a copy of her husband's death certificate, Stevenson said. With that, she said, administrators would have a legal basis to permanently remove Moti Arazi from the jury rolls.

Stevenson said she does not recall any mistake similar to the one that befell Arazi.

``I know people do get upset because we do ask for the death certificate,'' she said. ``I don't think people lie about being dead but we have to have a legal reason to excuse people and to permanently removed them (from the jury roster).''

Mashecia Whatley, the office assistant who made the mistake, said she must have misread the envelope that Josie Arazi had returned. Whatley, who Stevenson said is one of her fastest workers, believes she may have thought that Josie Arazi was returning her own jury questionnaire and was asking to be excused because of her husband's murder.

As for Josie Arazi, she said she felt good about the jury system following the trial in her husband's killing, but she now is disillusioned.

``It made me sick, the whole thing,'' she said, holding up the envelope with the ridge ripped across the top.