17. The Jury

Complete story — includes the ending

Gary is chosen to serve as a juror in the trial of a man accused of stealing money from his company and is unsuccessful in trying to avoid serving and is even elected foreperson. Gary is suspicious as the man, Phil, acts strangely and is not sure of his guilt. While Gary originally votes guilty, as he is about to read the verdict, the Cat delivers the Paper to him in the courtroom and he learns that Phil's wife holds the key to proving him innocent, causing him to change his vote to not guilty. As the judge sequesters the jury as a result, Gary sends Chuck to talk to Phil's wife who agrees to talk to Gary, but nobody else. With the help of Chuck, Gary escapes and meets up with the wife, but their plan is found out when one of the other jurors, Linda, sneaks in to see Gary and finds Chuck. Phil's wife reveals that Phil had learned of the embezzling scheme while at work and began investigating it. His boss, the head of the company, Prosky was stealing profits from himself and framed Phil for it and has been making threats against his family. She is unwilling to testify and reveals that the only other person who would have, Gus, is too scared after being beaten up at the beginning of the trial before Gary saved him. When Gary returns with this information, he learns that his deception was discovered and is kicked off the jury. After learning that Phil will kill himself, Gary and Chuck track down Gus and convince him to testify. They arrive as the jury is about to declare a guilty verdict and while the judge initially refuses to even hear from Gus, after seeing how scared he is of Prosky, he listens to Gary. While the judge refuses to allow Gus to testify, he declares a mistrial instead and asks the courts to arrange for Gary to never be called for jury duty again. At the end, Prosky is tried for his crimes and found guilty and Gary's fellow juror Linda drags him off for a drink. Guest stars: Mike Starr.