Even for NYC mayor, jury is still duty

Just like any other New Yorker, Michael Bloomberg spent a day on jury duty Monday. But unlike the other members of the pool, the billionaire mayor was greeted personally by the judge and attorneys, was asked for his autograph and was sketched by courtroom artists.

Bloomberg, accompanied by his security entourage and press aides, was among a pool of about 125 people summoned to civil court jury duty in State Supreme Court, New York state's trial-level court.

At midmorning, Bloomberg and some 40 others were called into a courtroom where attorneys waited to pick a jury for a lawsuit filed by a woman whose husband died after years of operating a printing press that attorneys said contained asbestos.

After filing into the courtroom carrying his coffee and a binder full of papers and magazines, he sat down to wait.

"Good morning, Mr. Mayor," the judge said. "He's the same as any other juror, as you will now find out," she told the courtroom.

The plaintiff's attorney, James Long, also noted the mayor's participation.

"If I seem a little nervous to you, give me a break," he told the jury pool. "Let's try to make this as normal as we can."

As attorneys for both sides questioned each member of the group, Bloomberg fidgeted on the wooden bench, yawned, and flipped through U.S. News & World Report, Time magazine and BusinessWeek.

When he was done with the magazines, he offered them to the woman on his left, Tina Goody. "He's just a normal guy," Goody said later.

Two courtroom sketch artists worked a few seats away. One had already asked the mayor to sign her drawing.

Long did not question Bloomberg long, declaring "your life's pretty much an open book." He did want assurances that the mayor would not dominate a potential jury of five other people, asking if he could be just one voice.

"I would be one voice of six, but I've got a strong personality and you'd have to ask them what they think," Bloomberg replied.

Long had already asked the others, and no one spoke up to say they'd be influenced by the mayor if they served on a jury with him.

But the mayor was not selected for the asbestos jury. Court officials told him to return to the jury room on Tuesday to continue serving.

If picked on Tuesday, Bloomberg would be the second sitting mayor in a row to be part of a jury. His predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, was the foreman on a jury in a landlord-tenant dispute during his second term in 1999.

Unlike many New Yorkers, Bloomberg sounded almost as if he hoped he would end up on a panel when he arrived at the courthouse just a few blocks from City Hall.

"It's always more interesting to be on a jury than to just sit there," he said. "You wish that we didn't need juries, that there was no crime and no civil suits but the real world is people have to make decisions as to what's right and wrong."

Other high-profile New Yorkers who have been called to serve over the years include Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Barbara Walters, Conan O'Brien, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Eliot Spitzer, before he became governor.

Bloomberg has been seated on juries several times, said mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser, serving seven days in 1992, six in 1988 and five in 1981.