Owner Prepares for Jury Duty in Dog's Name

Barrett Griner, IV is preparing for jury duty after a summons, mistakenly addressed in his dog's name, was confirmed to be inaccurate -- and meant for Barrett, not his dog.

The New Jersey resident said he was humored and confused when he received a notice from the Cumberland County Clerk of Courts last week for someone with the first name IV and the last name Griner; the legal name of his German Shepherd dog.

Officials from Cumberland County said the mix-up was likely due to a computer error, but that Griner would have to contact the office to confirm whether the summons was, in fact, intended for him.

Griner first attempted to contact the clerk through a form on the county's website.

"We had to answer all of these hilarious questions about the person listed on the summons, like is he or she an American citizen. I'm thinking, well, technically, she's German," he said.

Griner spoke with someone at the county office last week, and after providing some identification information, the office confirmed that the summons was meant for Barrett Griner, IV the man, not IV Griner, the dog.

"The summons was definitely for me. I pretty much told them who I was and they were able to look up my drivers license information and they said it was for me," he said. "The computer was found guilty for this mistake."

The computer glitch summons led to some speculation of voter registration fraud, since jury pools often come from a list of registered voters. According to the Cumberland County website, prospective jurors are randomly selected from a master list that is compiled with names from four lists: registered voters, licensed drivers, filers of state gross income tax returns and filers of homestead rebate applications.

A search of the New Jersey voter registration status log found no one by the name of IV Griner registered to vote in the state.

"I read that there was a lot of people that think my dog was actually registered and may have voted. It was just a crazy computer glitch that spit out the wrong name, that's all," he said.

Griner is scheduled to report to Cumberland County Superior Court for jury duty in May.

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