Legal News

?Heated? Deliberations in Refco Lawyer Trial; Finger-Cutting Threat

By Amir Efrati

Should we call it 12 Really Angry Men (and Women)?

We have no idea whether former Mayer Brown partner Joe Collins will be found guilty or not following an eight-week criminal trial. But we do know this: don’t mess with his jury.

Our fearless newswires reporter Chad Bray is out with a story (link unavailable) saying that the judge in the case received a rather alarming note from a juror earlier today. The male juror told the judge that a female juror had issued threats of physical harm against him on Wednesday:

”Although I appreciate your efforts to control the frequent insults I have endured, the threat of bodily harm brings this abuse to a whole new level,” the note said. In a loud and belligerent manner, the juror “threatened to ‘cut off your (my) finger.’ She made that statement twice. In the same tirade she stated, ‘I will have my husband take care of you.”’

The presiding judge, Robert P. Patterson, responded this afternoon by sending a note to the jury “to get them back into rational thinking and not to let anger prevail."

Yesterday the jury indicated to Patterson that they had been unable to reach a verdict on all 14 counts against Collins, who was an outside lawyer for commodity broker Refco Inc. Patterson urged them to continue deliberations, and today marks the sixth day.

Collins is accused of helping former Refco Chief Executive Phillip R. Bennett and others hide the firm’s dismal financial picture, namely more than $400 million of undisclosed debt. Bennett pleaded guilty to charges last year and was sentenced to 16 years. For prior LB coverage of the Collins case, click here, here and here.

In a separate note Thursday, the jury foreperson said the altercation between the two jurors “could be traced to both parties involved.”

“There has also been conversations on numerous occasions regarding respectfulness” by the juror who was threatened, the foreperson wrote. ”I do not intend this note to reflect the opinion of the jurors on a whole, but thought it important to voice my personal opinion on yesterday’s altercation.”

Also on Thursday, Patterson denied a motion for a mistrial by lawyers for Collins — who made the unusual step of taking the witness stand in his own defense — following the two juror notes.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 09, 2009 (boomark / email).