While appearing at a court summons for jury duty in July 2011, Cole put on a show:
“She was still so emotionally overcome [by a motorcycle crash nearby her house the night before] that she did not want to be involved with jury service” said a report. “She devised to appear to be mentally unbalanced when she appeared for jury service. This entailed wearing mismatched shoes, reindeer socks she had received over the holidays, and a shirt that bore the caption ‘Ask me about my best seller’ … [and] left her hair in curlers and applied excessive make up.”
The court reporter has records of her saying at the jury duty interview that “I broke out of domestic violence in the military. And I have a lot of repercussions. One is post-traumatic stress disorder … My military records are now missing. I have lived on the street, and I have worked myself up t living with my cousin.”
After the judge recognized the description from the radio show, he contacted his superiors and reviewed the records, resulting in a charge of perjury against Cole and also a charge with attempting to influence a public officer.
Legal Analyst Scott Robinson regards her case as bleak: “The defense will have to show that she did not knowingly lie about a material fact. Bragging about getting out of jury duty is a little like being proud of not voting or cheating on your taxes.”
Cole has said, “I just think: ‘What if I go to prison over this?’”