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Subway Sodomy Jury Is Pretty High Maintenance
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 19, 2010
Modified Feb 19, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 19, 2010
Modified Feb 19, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW]
Yesterday was the first full day of deliberations in the trial of three NYPD officers accused of participating in the sodomy of a man during his arrest in a Brooklyn subway station in 2008. And it doesn't look like this verdict is going to come smoothly; at the end of the day the jurors asked to be "educated" about what constitutes "reasonable doubt." And earlier one of the jurors was schooled for telling the others that Officer Richard Kern, who's accused of aggravated sexual abuse and assault, had prior convictions for police brutality.
Juror #6 cited news reports that Kern was twice convicted of police brutality in the past. The jury then sent a note to Judge Alan D. Marrus which read, "Many of the jury is very uncomfortable with this and don’t know how to proceed." City Room reports that Marrus called the jurors into a group and told them, "Everyone agrees this is not correct. There is no finding of police brutality on the part of Officer Kern. He was exonerated." After meeting with lawyers, the judge announced that "everyone agrees she's fit to continue." But defense attorney Richard Murray tells NY1, "Sure we are upset because it impacts the integrity of the process."
Earlier in the day, the jury sent other notes to the judge asking to see all physical evidence from the case. They also requested that a defense expert’s “testimony about the origin of the bacteria” in an abscess Michael Mineo had drained in the hospital be read back to them. Other testimony was also read back, including statements from an officer who says he witnessed the sodomy and another who said he heard one tell Mineo afterward, "You liked it, you liked it."
UPDATE: Juror #6 was removed this morning. City Room reports: "She was replaced with an alternate, a man who works as a traffic enforcement agent whom defense lawyers had seemed to prefer to the original sixth juror, a young woman who said she worked two jobs."
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deliberations
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michael mineo
subway sodomy
trial
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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