ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A judge says an Orange County Jewish center is sending out educational material disguised as a jury summons.
He’s worried people won't take a real summons seriously.
The judge said it’s not a scam, but it's the first time he’s seen something like this.
Chief Judge Fred Lauten said the letter was mailed to the Osceola County Court House last week.
It was address to a former judge, and court officials realized something wasn’t right.
“It looked like a jury summons. It said jury in big, bold letters with a big, red line through it,” said Lauten.
Turns out, it's connected to the Chabad Center of South Orlando.
The judge said the center wanted people to sign up for education classes.
“Our concern was that citizens might receive this envelope that looks like a juror summons,” Lauten said.
The fake summons comes in an envelope, but a real summons looks more like a post card from the county.
Lauten is worried once people get the fake mailer they'll ignore the real summons
“It's conceivable that the next day we could send them a true juror summons and they throw it in the trash going, ‘Well I got one of these yesterday,’” said Lauten.
The judge said the courthouse tried calling the Chabad Center but had no luck.
Rabbi Yosef Konikov said they only sent the letter out to members of the Chabad Center, and said they've stopped using it because of the confusion.
“Even though it was made to look very different, but nevertheless, we did discontinue it,” he said.
The rabbi also said the classes centered on court cases, learning more about them and applying the Jewish faith to them.
That's why they chose the jury summons letter.
Konikov also said he has not received a letter from the judge and has no messages from him either.
Cox Media Group
