NEW YORK — The longtime host of “The Late Show with David Letterman” found himself answering questions rather than asking them when a federal judge in New York City put the entertainer through an audition of sorts on Monday for a possible role as a juror in a criminal trial. It was the serious setting of a criminal trial over a cryptocurrency fraud when Judge P. Kevin Castel confronted the famous bearded comedian, identified in court only as “Juror 16,” with questions just as he did three dozen other potential jurors to determine who would be on a panel of 12 jurors and four alternates.
The prospective jurors had already survived a general round of questioning in which individuals are dismissed for hardship reasons, such as medical issues or jobs from which they cannot be spared. The trial is expected to last less than two weeks. When Letterman, who stepped down from his show in 2015, made it to what could be the final round for admittance on the jury, the judge lobbed a softball: “Where do you live?” “Hartford,” Letterman responded, proving that he couldn't make it through a single word without delivering a joke.
“No, it's a joke,” Letterman quickly let the judge know. Hartford is in Connecticut, which would have disqualified him from the jury because it is outside the area where jurors are drawn from. “Nice try,” the judge responded, adding, “You figured you would forgo Queens,” another location outside the area covered by the Southern District.