My plan to deal with subpoenas to testify

[Declan McCullagh]

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