A Sioux Falls woman who was selected to be on a federal jury and then disappeared has been ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

The 30-year-old woman, who was not identified by court officials, was selected to sit on the jury in a complex financial criminal trial that ended last week.

On the first day of the trial, after the jurors had been selected, Judge Karen Schreier released the jury for lunch. But the woman never returned.

“Nobody knew where she was,” said Gary Bunt, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service. “The court tried to call her, and she wouldn’t answer her phone.”

Bunt was one of two U.S. Marshals whom Schreier dispatched to find the woman. At first, court personnel were concerned that something bad might have happened to her during the lunch break.

More:Brookings couple takes on Volkswagen over faulty emissions fix

But officials learned from another juror that the woman claimed she had a sick child and wasn’t going to return to court. The woman ran a makeup business on Facebook, and the other juror followed her on Facebook.

The woman not only didn’t return, she also violated Schreier’s order that the jurors stay off social media: She posted a live stream video on Facebook to promote her business.

“She posted a 45-minute video when she was supposed to be back sitting on this jury,” Bunt said.

The marshals went to her home and determined there was no sick child.

Ultimately, her place on the jury was taken by an alternate. Matt Thelen, the clerk of the U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, said it’s not uncommon for a juror to get sick during a trial or for a family emergency to come up. That’s why juries have alternates.

But Thelen said he’s never seen an instance where a juror just decided not to show up.

“I don’t remember an experience where a juror didn’t come back from a lunch break,” Thelen said.

She was brought back to court where Schreier sentenced her to perform community service. She could have been sentenced to jail or fined, Bunt said.

“This juror chose to abscond, so to speak, and not take her civic responsibility seriously,” Bunt said.