I was subpoenaed to appear before federal grand jury two days ago, and the server was hanging out on my front porch for quite a while. I had failed to answer the door an hour earlier, and apparently he had just decided to set up camp there (cleverly out of scope of my peep hole) until I stepped out to go to work, which is exactly what happened. When I relayed the story to my boss later, he informed me that having a server camped out on my front porch is a perfectly good reason to call in sick. Heh. Either way, I am now installing a camera out there, because I have learned a lesson about the security of my front porch, and the effectiveness of the peep hole. -----Original Message----- From: Declan McCullagh [mailto:declan@well.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 2:53 PM To: Tim May; cypherpunks@cyberpass.net Subject: Re: My plan to deal with subpoenas to testify At 11:01 12/6/2000 -0800, Tim May wrote:
(Of course, _serving me_ is problematic. I had a process server make several trips out to my semi-rural hilltop home in 1995 before finally reaching me at home. And that was when I still answering the doorbell. These days I use my peephole, or a t.v. camera I sometimes have set up. I doubt a process server could get to me.)
When I was served with a subpoena in the CJ Parker trial, I had had a party the night before and let a friend of a friend sleep over in my living room. The process server showed up around 7:30 am the following morning and my houseguest let him into the foyer. Grr.
-- I was surprised to see so many "affidavits" and "interviews" and "pre-trial statements" from various witnesses in the Parker case. Surely these people must have known that though their presence could have been compelled in Washington state, that they had no obligation to sit down with Federal agents and give interviews!
When I was subpoenaed in the Parker trial, I did not give any pre trial statement or affidavits or whatnot. (There's no incentive for me to do so, and presumably little incentive for list members to do so, unless they see it as a way to avoid further involvement.) My lawyer was the person who had contact with DoJ.
(Note about expenses: I had heard during the Parker trial that various witnesses called to travel to Washington were to "submit travel expense receipts." Is this true? What part of the Constitution says citizens must
Yes. It's a standard government form. They also paid something like $25 a day while you waited outside the courtroom before being called to the stand, and $40 a day you actually testified. Yay. -Declan