Excuse Me Your Honor

In this pilot episode, the jurisprudence in Judge Williams' court is more like Night Court than Law and Order.   The judge is mid-seventies, a widower, retired in place, occasionally dozing on the bench, and a notorious tight wad. The prosecutor is in his late 20s, barely competent, addle-headed, and insanely superstitious. The public defender is in her mid-30’s, savvy, sardonic wit, who has more success with her clients than her three kids. They are only able to select juries, or for that matter get through the day, because of court clerk Connie, mid 40’s, Mexican-American, the voice of reason in Judge Williams' court for 20 years.  Our first and only case in this episode involves 45 year old Karen Wright, charged with disrupting a school board meeting after repeated requests to leave.  According to her, the school board was refusing to ban disgusting books such as Cat in the Hat from school libraries.  Finding a jury to try this misdemeanor criminal case occupies most of the first episode.  First, the lawyers take a stab at it, then the judge.  But the prospective jurors are knee deep in the shallow end of that day's jury pool.  "I don't believe in committing crimes"; "I'm allergic to the lawyers' wool suits"; "My cat has a scheduled appointment with a psychiatrist."   Because a jury of her peers would necessarily include the torch wielding villagers from a Frankenstein movie, they must settle for a jury that resembles a reboot of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But, alas, they are hopelessly deadlocked as one juror leaves behind his inspiration, a book entitled “How to Turn Hung Juries into Hit Movies.” Back to square one -- until Connie suggests a solution.  Place Karen in pre-trial diversion, with the requirement that each month she read one book from her list of banned books and complete a three page book report identifying all the positive things she finds in each book. Great, back to normal, right?  Not exactly.  The usual jury commission is consigned to bed rest and the judge decides that the court can save money by having Connie assume two roles:  court clerk and substitute jury commissioner.  Future episodes will show us all how she and everyone else is doing.