Results tagged “mistrial”

One day after Judge Kevin Castel tried to broker peace between fighting jurors on the John Gotti, Jr. racketeering trial, the judge tried to sugarcoat the fragile peace... with Twizzlers. Yesterday Castel presented the jury with a big tub of the artificially-flavored twists, offering three reasons for the gift. One, "If you have a Twizzler in your mouth, you can't really have a serious conversation." (Yeah, that's the last thing you want on a jury.) Two, "If you're frustrated, you've got something to take your frustration out on." (Licorice whip!) And three, "They put you in a good mood." Looks like somebody's going to have to recuse himself from any Twizzler-related lawsuits from now on!

Given that these jurors have had to sit through five months of testimony in the trial involving Brooke Astor's fortune, is it any wonder that nerves are seriously frayed? On Monday, the jury sent the judge a note, "Due to heated argument, a juror feels personally threatened by comments made by another juror... With regards to her personal safety, she wishes to be dismissed anonymously," and then later that day, one juror was seen "sobbing."

A federal judge John F. Keenan declared a mistrial in a case investigating whether Merck & Co.'s osteoporosis drug called Fosamax causes severe dental and jaw problems. Why? Well, the AP reports, "Deliberations deteriorated to the point that lawyers waiting in the courtroom could hear screaming coming from the jury room and one female juror said another juror threw a chair at her." The trial had been going on for a month in Manhattan and the higher-ups of the drug industry as well as liability lawyers have been keeping a watchful eye on the trial, as it's the first of nearly 900 state and federal cases against the company.

Last year, the vicious mugging attacks on two elderly women—one 101 years old (Rose Morat, pictured with bruises on her face), the other 85 years old—shocked the city and led to a police dragnet to find suspect Jack Rhodes. On Thursday, a mistrial was declared, after, the Daily News explains, "the juror forewoman cried about missing work and wanting to see her mother." The forewoman said, "This case has been taking a long time...I'm going to have to fly to see my mom." Rhodes, who faces up to 25 years in jail for the alleged muggings that net him $65 and some jewelry, will probably be retried; Morat, now 102, taped her testimony earlier this year.

After a judge declared a mistrial in the the animal cruelty case of a 205-pound man who killed a 7-pound cat, some of the jurors explained what happened during deliberations. The Post reported that "exhausted-looking" Shamsul Islam, Juror No. 11, said, "It was 11 to 1."

The feds must believe if you try, try, try and fail, fail, fail, you must try again, because it seems they are going to charge John Gotti Jr. with a new set of murder charges. The Post reports "Junior will likely be charged with at least five murders," including a Queens man who Gotti Jr. "allegedly disemboweled" in 1983, using a boxcutter or linoleum knife. And that's not all: Junior allegedly got help from "more...