HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 19-year-old juror has filed a lawsuit against a Mercedes-Benz dealership for firing him in the midst of jury service.Zach White is a 2018 high school graduate and had been working as a valet driver at the Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands since last fall."I really enjoyed working there, driving a Mercedes every day, it was cool," said White.White, whose father is a local police detective, says he long had the values of public service instilled upon him. He even plans on joining the military after college. When he was called to jury duty in February, there was never much doubt he would show up."My civic duty as an American citizen," said White, who tells ABC13 Eyewitness News that his supervisor at the dealership blew off the summons."He just said, 'Just toss it, they won't care.' I'm like, 'Hmm, I'm going to talk to my dad.' My dad was like, 'Oh, you got to go, unless you want to go to jail,' and I was like, 'I don't really want to go to jail.'"White was picked as an alternate juror in a civil trial in the courtroom of Judge Jaclanel McFarland.The trial lasted four weeks. Toward the end of the trial, White tried to log into his work website and check his paystub, and found out he could not log in.In the termination letter obtained by ABC13, jury service was mentioned. However, the letter stated that White was fired for "abandoning" his job because he did not show up for days of work away from his jury duty, as he had agreed to.When lawyers in the case he was serving heard about White's firing, they cried foul."The letter from Mercedes-Benz references explicitly his jury service, so it's clearly on their minds," said Lee Thweatt, one of the attorneys in the civil trial. "People who serve on juries deserve to be respected, and their job will be waiting for them when they return from jury service."Geoff Berg was the opposing counsel in the trial, and he too was shocked."It is critically important to the function of our government, to our society, that people be permitted to serve as jurors without consequence by their employer," Berg said.Berg, Thweatt, and all the lawyers in the civil trial were so outraged they decided to represent White for free. They point out that the law clearly protects jurors from retaliation for serving.The judge in the original case, McFarland, says it was good to see lawyers on opposing sides agree that jury service is important. The judge even considered hauling the Mercedes-Benz dealership into court to answer questions."Jury service is fundamental to our democracy," Judge McFarland said. "This was a young man who had come, who had participated faithfully in doing his service, and was punished by his employer. That's just wrong."When asked about the lawsuit, Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands said they do not comment on pending litigation.White is now looking for a full-time job.**Update**Mercedes-Benz of The Woodlands released this statement on Thursday morning.The dealership also posted text messages and audio of calls with White, on their website