CLEARFIELD – A Winburne man who couldn’t stay awake during jury selection last week ended up with plenty of time to rest in jail.
According to court documents, President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman was told prior to entering the courtroom that one of the members of the jury pool, identified later as Roger Michael Cantara, appeared to be asleep.
Once Ammerman took the bench and began speaking to the potential jurors, he noticed Cantara “slumped over to the side with his head down, with his eyes closed.”
He then instructed someone to prod Cantara, who woke up. Cantara was advised that he needed to stay alert and listen to the jury instructions.
After a minute, his head was back down. He was again told that he needed to keep his eyes open, and if he didn’t it “probably wasn’t going to go very well for him.”
A short time later, his eyes were closed again.
At this point, Ammerman asked Cantara be taken to the probation office for a drug test.
When he returned, the probation officer reported that Cantara tested positive for both Oxycodone and marijuana. Cantara admitted to using marijuana within the last week, but denied using Oxycodone.
However, he did admit to taking some “type of a pain medicine” given to him by a friend.
Cantara apologized for falling asleep and explained he had “a lot of things happening in my life and it’s all piling up on one another.”
Ammerman declared Cantara was in contempt of court for failing to follow the court’s instructions for a prospective juror and Cantara was sentenced to three days in jail.
