Facebook E-Mails May Unravel "Black Sunday" Convictions

Earlier this year, the current and former owners of a Bronx apartment building whose tenants illegally subdivided their apartments and essentially created a maze that killed two firefighters in 2005, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Now defense lawyers are trying to throw out the conviction, because one of the jurors contacted one of the witnesses. Newsday reports, "The social networking site Facebook took center stage in a Bronx courtroom Friday with the unsealing of gushing e-mails from a juror" to firefighter Brendan Cawley, who had testified. Apparently Karen Krell unsuccessfully tried to contact Cawley via Facebook during the trial; she continued to message him—"I'm awed at what you and the others went through, and what you yourself still continue to go through"— until he responded. She wrote, post-trial, to her fellow jurors, "So I finally found Brendon on facebook and we wrote some letters to each other (just about the trial, nothing else!! =( ...LOL)." A defendant's lawyer said, "You're entitled to 12, not 11 unbiased witnesses."

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By Jen Chung in News on July 19, 2009 9:29 AM

Comments [rss]

sparkey210

Don't know if Krell got laid, but I can't beleive that this chick is responsible for educating the future of our society. What a terrible roll model for her students. She should be ashamed of her self. What a waste of tax Payer Dollars. They should charge her the cost of the trial if it is dismissed.

Spirit of 76

A defendant's lawyer said, "You're entitled to 12, not 11 unbiased witnesses."

Hmm. Shouldn't that be "unbiased jurors"? I guess they don't make lawyers the way they used to.

NannyState

So...did she get laid?

cutlass

Boy, is it scary to think that people this stupid are responsible for any decisions at all, let alone important legal decisions. "Jury of my peers?" This broad ain't any peer of mine.

NYDirk

At least we know this will never happen again since the Bloomberg administration has spent the last four years cracking down on illegal subdivisions.

Rocknrope

Nice work Krell, you pathetic horndog.

gothamguy

How stupid is this woman? If the judge throws out the convictions because of this (and I think that is the right call) this woman should be billed for the cost of the first trial.

I just don't understand how if you are sitting on a jury and deciding whether someone is guilty of murder and deserves to go to prison, you feel it is appropriate to send childish flirty emails to a witness. And, even if you do, can you not summon the self control to wait until the trial is over?