Juror’s Trash Talk About Lawyers Leads to Mistrial
A New Jersey trial judge did the right thing in vacating a cocaine conviction based on a juror's comment that "defense attorneys can be assholes," an appeals court says. Burlington City, N.J., police officer John Fine, a prosecution witness in the case, said a juror uttered those words to him in a courthouse elevator. Fine immediately told a detective in the prosecutor's office but the detective waited until after the verdict to tell the prosecutor, who told the judge.
