A BusinessWeek AME and jury duty

BusinessWeek assistant managing editor Bruce Nussbaum was ordered off a jury but also ordered to sit in a central jury room until a trial ended because he expressed concern about his wife’s safety, according to a New York Times article Tuesday.

Anemona Hartocollis wrote, “The judge, who indicated in court papers that he believed Mr. Nussbaum was trying to evade jury duty, said: ‘You ‘did a bad thing,’ as the saying goes. You’re off the jury.’

“But the judge not only excused Mr. Nussbaum from the jury, he also found him ‘grossly unqualified’ for failing to make his fears known earlier, and ordered him to sit in the central jury room of the courthouse from 9:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. for the rest of the trial.

“Mr. Nussbaum, believing the judge was out of line, hired a lawyer, Michael F. Bachner, to appeal his confinement to the Appellate Division.

“‘Petitioner, a man ready, willing and able to sit on a jury, has been embarrassed and de facto confined by the court for his honesty,’ Mr. Bachner wrote in his brief.

Read more here. An appeals court ruled the BusinessWeek editor could leave on Monday. Don’t judges know that business journalists have important work?