A Wall Street investment adviser who apparently felt jury duty was taking up too much of his time managed to get out of it - with a 10-day jail sentence instead.
Marc Antonio Antamoro, 27, who works for Merrill Lynch, was sent to jail Thursday by state Supreme Court Justice Howard Bell, who had twice scolded him for lateness and inattention during a murder trial."Your client, in an obvious effort to get out of jury service, sat with his head down, rarely looking up at the proceedings," Bell told Antamoro's lawyer, Joel S. Stern. He said Antamoro's attitude seemed to be, "I don't care what you do, I'm not going to pay any attention to what goes on in this court-room."
Bell said Antamoro, sworn in May 30 as the second alternate, was 15 to 45 minutes late for the start of the morning session and late returning from lunch most days during the three weeks the trial has been in session. Summations in the trial are expected next week.
Stern asked Bell to sentence Antamoro to community service instead. "I think you got your message through, your honor," the lawyer said. "He's apparently beside himself. He realizes the seriousness of everything."
Bell said if he did change the sentence to community service, it would be 300 hours - almost two months if Antamoro worked 40-hour weeks. He scheduled a hearing, telling Stern: "Bring your client in Monday and let him decide."
Stern said outside court that Antamoro, who has clients all over the world, was just trying to stay on top of his business while doing jury duty.
"His problem was trying to do two jobs at once," Stern said.