One unique aspect of jury service in the District of Columbia is the presence of the great and the good alongside the ordinary folks required to report to 500 Indiana Avenue. In recent years, sightings at the jurors lounge of the H. Carl Moultrie courthouse have included Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and onetime White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
None of those Beltway celebs got picked. But yesterday, Anthony Fauci, the legendary doctor who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, found his own way to be of service.
Yesterday afternoon, as a pool of about 50 potential jurors took turns being interviewed by a judge overseeing a gun-possession case, one of the people gathered in the courtroom fell ill—and the Presidential Medal of Freedom laureate who oversees national research into HIV, Ebola and Zika hurried to her aid. When the session reconvened, Superior Court Judge Steven Berk announced, with some bemusement, that a world-famous doctor had attended to the stricken woman.
Given a chance to brag about having combined his duty as a citizen and a doctor, Fauci demurred. Contacted at his office after non-selected jurors had been sent home, he cited doctor-patient confidentiality and declined further comment.
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
