Yeah, that’s a good point. Clearly prejudicial...
Reminds me of the Chauvin murder trial. Just before the trial, either the city of Minneapolis or the country (Hennepin Co.) paid out a massive sum of money ($27 million?) to George Floyd’s family to signal to the jury how they were supposed to vote. As insurance there was also a BLM activist among the jurors to make sure they voted the right way (he complained afterwards that they didn’t vote to convict fast enough to suit him).