The dreaded jury notice arrived Monday with its stern reminder: this is a summons, not an invitation.
Dr. Omar Ibrahimi of Darien assumed it was for him.
"I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it wasn't my name on it, and then it took me a second, I'm like wait a minute, why is my daughter's name on this jury summons?" he said.
Zara Ibrihami is one of the 550,000 Connecticut residents summoned for jury duty each year.
Age? Four. Occupation? Pre-school student.
With her reporting date of April 15 approaching, her dad tried to bring her up to speed on her civic responsibility.
"She's like 'what's that,' and I'm like 'it's where you listen and you decide if someone is guilty or not guilty,'" Ibrahimi said. "And she goes, 'I'm just a baby.'"
The judicial branch uses information from the DMV, voter records, the labor department and revenue services -- and that's the only department that submits names but not birthdates.
"I took it with a little bit of humor and I sent over my wife a text and I said, 'hey, looks like Zara's getting summoned to jury duty,'" Ibrahimi said.
Curiously, Zara's 8 and 12-year-old siblings have not been called yet.
Ibrahimi went online to get her off the hook.
"There was a free text box, so I put in, 'I haven't even completed preschool yet, excuse me,'" Ibrahimi said.
Case closed.
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