Menendez trial jurors say they're deadlocked; judge says sleep on it
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Northjersey.com’s Nick Pugliese gives a recap after Monday’s deliberations with an alternate juror in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
NEWARK, N.J. — After jurors slipped a note to court officials saying they were deadlocked on criminal corruption charges against Sen. Bob Menendez, the judge told them to go home and return Tuesday with a new outlook.
The note from jurors capped a head-spinning day at the federal courthouse in Newark, where the New Jersey Democrat’s corruption trial is now in its 11th week.Â
As of 2 p.m., on behalf of all jurors, we cannot reach a unanimous decision on any of the charges. Is there any additional guidance? And what do we do now?
A hung jury would punctuate the trial with a massive question mark and require the government to decide whether to try the case over again.
“Go home, get a breath of fresh air or rain, or whatever it may be doing out there,†U.S. District Judge William H. Walls said.
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Earlier Monday, four jurors and three alternates told Walls that they had read or heard something about the case since Thursday when a juror excused from deliberations caused an uproar by telling reporters that Menendez was innocent, the government was corrupt and the jury was divided.
That prompted Walls to interview the affected jurors one by one in his chambers. After about 20 minutes, Walls emerged and instructed the jury begin its deliberations “from scratch†with an alternate taking the place of the excused juror.
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Lowell, who was present in Walls’ chambers when the judge talked to jurors, also said one juror had admitted to discussing the case with a co-worker and another had discussed it with a spouse. Walls repeatedly instructed them throughout the trial not to discuss the case with anyone outside the courtroom until a verdict had been reached.
Adam Lurie, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the government investigations practice at the Linklaters law firm in Washington, said a hung jury would “call into question the government’s theory and ability to win a conviction and the government’s ability to proceed on a similar theory.”
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In total, Menendez faces six counts of bribery, three counts of honest services fraud, one count of conspiracy, one count of interstate travel to carry out bribery and one count of making false statements on his congressional financial disclosures to conceal the crimes. Melgen faces the same charges except the false statements accusation.
The fraud charges carry the most serious penalty, up to 20 years in prison.
Contributing: Herb Jackson, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record. Follow Nicholas Pugliese on Twitter:Â @nickpugz
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