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Legal News

: Fastcase Legal News

Defendant in $12.6 Million Dollar Verdict Looking for a New Trial on Grounds of Twitter

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Stoam Holdings, a building materials company in Fayetteville, AK, has appealed a $12.6 million dollar verdict rendered for mismanaging investor funds. The argument is that one of the jurors was biased. The evidence is in the Twitter history of Juror Johnathan Powell. See below.

Relevant Tweets:
Tweet: Well, i finally got called for jury duty. It is kinda exciting.
Tweet: Trying to learn about Jury duty for tomorrow, but all searches lead me to Suggestions for getting out of it, instead of rocking it.
Tweet: I guess I'm early. Two Angry Men just won't do.
Tweet: So Johnathan, what did you do today? Oh, nothing really. I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else's money.
Tweet: Oh, and nobody buy Stoam. It's bad mojo, and they'll probably cease to exist, now that their wallet is $12M lighter.

The defendant's attorney is arguing that "Juror Johnathan's public statements show us that he arrived at jury duty with the desire to get on the jury and 'rock' the jury. He researched this topic in advance. He arrived as a self described 'angry' man." According to LAW.COM, the motion for a new trial concludes that Powell was "predisposed toward giving a verdict that would impress his audience."

The plaintiffs have responded that the biased Tweets were time stamped after the verdict was announced.

We'll keep you updated

Source: Scientific American

Full post as published by Fastcase Legal News on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).