Charming Kid Rock dismissed from murder trial jury pool

DETROIT — Superstar Kid Rock was on the hot seat for less than five minutes before a judge agreed to boot him from jury duty in a Michigan murder trial.

Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, was one of 160 citizens called as potential jurors for a trial to begin next week in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Thursday afternoon, Kid Rock, juror number 335, took a seat in the jury box along with 13 other potential jurors to answer questions from attorneys and the judge to determine if he could be fair and impartial.

He was immediately charming, causing a courtroom full of starstruck spectators to laugh.

He said he had law enforcement friends around the country and would likely give police "the benefit of the doubt" in the murder trial.

When Judge Martha Anderson asked him if he had ever been the victim of a crime, Rock said he had been the object of many lawsuits. "I don't know if you call that a crime, but it seems pretty criminal to me," he said, prompting laughter.

He also noted that he knew the assistant prosecutor, Jeff Hall, who is handling the murder trial. Hall prosecuted the man who ran through Kid Rock's security gate and attempted to break into his home in the Clarkston area in 2013.

"Jeff prosecuted him successfully," Rock told the packed courtroom "So thank you, Jeff!"

Noting the musician's close ties to law enforcement and his connection to the assistant prosecutor, the judge dismissed him from the pool.

Rock was escorted out of the courtroom by deputies and declined to comment.

Rock arrived at the courthouse in Pontiac early Thursday morning, and Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies provided him with an escort to the jury room. He sat at the back of the room, reading a paperback book. Two older women sat at the same table, perhaps unaware they were seated next to one of the world’s most famous musicians.