Posted on 03/26/2004 6:36:24 PM PST by AM2000
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The corruption case of two former Tyco International Ltd. executives veered closer to a mistrial on Friday as jurors remained in turmoil, prompting the judge to send them home early to calm down.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus told the jurors to return on Monday after they sent him a note saying they did not believe they could keep deliberating in good faith.
"Based upon further intense discussion today, we firmly believe that this jury's ability to communicate and deliberate with an open mind is irreparably compromised," the jury said in the note to Obus before lunch.
"This is not a hung jury based upon a lack of unanimity," the note continued. "This is a jury that has ceased to be able to conduct respectful, open-minded, good-faith deliberations."
Deliberations began last week in the case against former Tyco Chairman Dennis Kozlowski and ex-finance chief Mark Swartz. They went on trial in late September on charges that they had looted the conglomerate of $600 million.
Even Obus expressed concern that the jury would not be able to reach a verdict. At one point, he said he was not optimistic that the trial would go past Friday and said the situation among jurors had clearly worsened.
"This is not a hung jury note...it's something worse," Obus said. "Something else is going on here."
The judge instructed the jurors to set aside hard feelings and work toward a verdict following an almost six-month trial, which is being watched as a pivotal corporate corruption prosecution in the wake of other scandals, such as those at Enron and WorldCom.
"If you want to convince someone of something, you must treat that person in a respectful way," the judge said, urging them "to give yourself a break, give yourself some slack."
Juror No. 4, a retired lawyer and teacher, appeared to be the center of controversy on the panel after making what looked like an "OK" sign with her right hand as she entered the courtroom earlier on Friday.
The juror's apparent gesture came as the panel of three women and nine men reassembled for a seventh day of deliberations in one of the largest corporate corruption cases in U.S. history.
Obus later instructed the jury not to make any "verbal" or "non-verbal" communications.
The rancor that erupted late on Thursday in the deliberation room continued on Friday even after Obus started the day by urging civility and respect. Jury notes on Thursday described the atmosphere as poisonous.
The jury on Thursday sent in rapid succession three notes that suggested the panel might be leaning toward a guilty verdict. But at least one juror appeared to be questioning the fairness of that outcome.
"The jury contends that one member has stopped deliberating in good faith," the first of the notes said. "Said juror believes they are being persecuted. Many incendiary accusations have been exchanged that we believe have compromised the fairness of the process."
The Tyco case has grabbed tabloid headlines for months as the court heard about Kozlowski's lavish spending. Jurors learned how he paid $5 million for a diamond ring, $6,000 for a shower curtain and $2 million to fete his wife in Sardinia for her 40th birthday. The party featured a now-infamous ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David with vodka flowing from its penis.
Prosecutors portrayed Kozlowski as the poster boy for U.S. corporate greed, accusing him of using Tyco as his personal piggy bank.
Kozlowski, 57, built Tyco into one of the world's largest diversified manufacturers through a dizzying array of acquisitions that cost more than $60 billion. Swartz, 43, was his top lieutenant and the point man for explaining Tyco's opaque accounting to Wall Street.
Wait a sec! I thought democrats were against corporate greed and corruption!
Friday, March 26, 2004 06:35 PM ET
NEW YORK -- An alternate juror in the Tyco International Ltd. (TYC, news) corporate- looting trial said he recognized the handwriting on a note sent by a juror on Thursday as that of Ruth Jordan, adding that Ms. Jordan throughout the trial had "eyes and ears exclusively for the defense."
Ms. Jordan, a retired teacher who has a law degree, was also the juror who stunned the courtroom Friday morning by apparently making an "OK" sign at the defense table when she passed by on the way to the jury box.
"I recognized Ruth's handwriting," said Simon Cuesta, a 29-year-old New York City bus driver who served as an alternate in the trial, but was dismissed at the start of deliberations. Mr. Cuesta said he had seen a copy of the note in the newspapers.
The note, apparently written by a single juror, indicated that other jurors were refusing to recognize the right of "at least one juror" to believe the defendants were innocent. Trial observers have speculated that the author of the note is alone or among a small group in strongly favoring an acquittal in the case.
The panel of nine men and three women has been deliberating since March 18 whether to convict L. Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco's former chief executive, and Mark Swartz, its former financial chief, on charges they looted the Bermuda conglomerate of $600 million. Deliberations have ground to a halt amid acrimony in the jury room, and the judge Friday afternoon sent the jurors home for the weekend.
Mr. Cuesta said he had observed throughout the trial that Ms. Jordan favored the defense, saying: "She was a totally different person when the prosecution came up."
Mr. Cuesta said Ms. Jordan also was "very set in her ways, very stubborn" in jury interactions before deliberations. Because Ms. Jordan continues to sit on the jury, she couldn't be reached for comment.
Legal experts said the apparent gesture by Ms. Jordan to the defense team was extremely unusual, and certainly seemed to indicate her leanings in the case. Judge Michael Obus later admonished the jury not to make any verbal or nonverbal communication with the parties, and when leaving the courtroom later in the day Ms. Jordan had her hands in her pockets.
-By Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal; 617-654-6786
(Colleen DeBaise contributed to this story.)
Yep. When I heard about this story, I immediate thought of Uncle Junior's trial on the Sopranos!
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