Nov 15
NEWARK -- After the seventh day of deliberations in U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's federal corruption trial came and went without a verdict, many jurors departed the fourth-floor courtroom Wednesday looking visibly fatigued and with their heads hung.
The seven women and five men seated in the jury room of U.S. District Judge William H. Walls' courtroom began their deliberations late in the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 6, after nine weeks of testimony and arguments in the case of the New Jersey Democrat and his co-defendant, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
Last Monday afternoon, with an alternate replacing a dismissed juror on the fourth full day of deliberations, the foreman sent Walls a note indicating the jury was deadlocked and asked for guidance.
Walls refused to declare a mistrial, and sent the jury back to continue deliberating, sparking a backlash from defense attorneys who were concerned the judge was trying to force a verdict.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday after the jury was sent home, Menendez said he had never wavered in asserting his innocence.
"I appreciate that there are clearly jurors who are asserting my innocence as well in the jury room," he said. "I appreciate the work, the deliberations after nine weeks of trial and now the second week of deliberations -- of the attentiveness the jurors are showing to the charge that they took.
"I hope that they come to a verdict across the board of innocent, and I look forward to tomorrow, hopefully, being that day."
It's not unheard of for deliberations in federal corruption cases to stretch dozens of hours.
In 1981, jurors in Newark spent 28 hours in a jury room -- albeit over a condensed two days -- before convicting then U.S. Sen. Harrison "Pete" Williams of bribery, according to the New York Times.
Trial is scheduled to resume in federal court in Newark on Monday, with dismissed juror replaced by an alternate juror.
In 2008, a jury of six men and six women spent six days deliberating before returning guilty verdicts against former Newark mayor Sharpe James and his one-time girlfriend, Tamika Riley, in a real-estate fraud case involving city-owned land.
Jurors in the 2010 trial of former Ridgefield mayor Anthony Suarez deliberated for four days before acquitting him of taking bribes from a government informant.
In the event the jury again indicates it is unable to reach a verdict, Walls has agreed to poll the jury's foreman to determine whether it is hopelessly deadlocked, and if not, give jurors the option of returning a partial verdict on only some of the counts.
He has yet to decide whether to explicitly instruct the jurors that a hung jury is a legitimate outcome, as defense attorneys have requested.
Menendez and Melgen are accused by the Justice Department of trading government favors for six-figure campaign contributions, luxury hotel stays and private plane flights. The senator is also accused of concealing from the Senate Melgen's gifts by intentionally omitting them from his annual disclosure forms.
Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby, the juror excused from the panel last week, told reporters the jury was split on whether to convict Menendez and Melgen of the bribery conspiracy, and that she was the only juror at that time prepared to acquit Menendez of making false statements on his Senate disclosure forms.
Deliberations are expected to resume at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
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