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Posted on 12/14/2003 2:36:28 PM PST by martin_fierro
Convicted cigar smuggler wants juror to talk
December 14, 2003
BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter Advertisement
Throughout Skokie attorney Richard "Mick'' Connors' federal trial on charges he smuggled thousands of Cuban cigars into the United States, he contended he was simply doing research for a fictional book about illegal smuggling.
Now, more than a year after his conviction, the case is taking more twists than a Scott Turow novel.
Thursday, both the U.S. attorney and Connors' attorney, Jack Cutrone, asked U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman for permission to interview the jury forewoman.
Cutrone claims he has evidence of a 45-minute phone call between a number registered to the forewoman, Maureen Murphy Scott, and a man who used to work with one of the main investigators in the case. The call allegedly took place the same night Connors' federal trial ended and as the jury was about to start its deliberations.
"It might be entirely innocent, but it's certainly an unusual set of circumstances and something I have not run into before,'' Cutrone said Friday. Cutrone is seeking to have Connors' conviction thrown out and a new trial held.
The request comes after the court held an evidentiary hearing into new allegations that the investigator, John Sheridan, used Connors' ex-wife to illegally obtain evidence against Connors.
Cutrone declined to release evidence of the alleged phone call. But he said it was made to a number registered to a former Evanston police officer who worked in the 1970s with Sheridan, a former special agent for the U.S. Customs Service who investigated Connors smuggling case.
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The Wynona Ryder defense... research for a movie.
Nice caption.
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