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Saturday, January 20, 2007

Courts - From Kentucky: "New local trial on tap because of drunken juror"

Andrew Wolfson writes in the Louisville Courier Journal today in a story that begins:

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has ordered a new trial in a traffic accident suit because one juror drank so much vodka during the trial last September that a deputy sheriff heard her screaming in the jury room.

Although Kentucky's high court twice ruled decades ago that there is nothing wrong with jurors taking a nip, Judge Geoffrey Morris last week set the verdict aside and ordered a retrial.

Morris did so even though the inebriated juror voted in favor of the plaintiff, who claimed she was injured when a garbage truck ran into her car. The jury had awarded her $15,550, which was reduced to $3,825 because jurors found she was partially at fault and to reflect money she'd already been paid.

Morris conceded in his order that new trials may be granted only in the most "extreme of circumstances," but he said, "the inexcusable, disruptive behavior of this juror was so extraordinary as to render this relief appropriate."

This is somewhat reminescent of this ILB entry headed "Questions of Jury Behavior in Myers Murder Trial" from Nov. 29, 2006, albeit with a different outcome.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 20, 2007 10:51 AM
Posted to Courts in general