Attorneys alerted: Prepare for possibility of deadlock
The federal judge in the “Top Chef” extortion case warned the trial teams last night to prepare for the possibility jurors are deadlocked based on the only word they have heard from them in three days of deliberations.
Should the nine women and three men declare themselves hung, U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock asked attorneys to consider whether they will want him to give the jury a so-called Allen charge — that is, send them back with the expectation they will work out their differences and reach unanimous verdicts.
“Absent some communication from the jury indicating an impasse, I’m not going to ... take any steps and I’m not going to intrude on the jury by taking that step,” Woodlock said.
Jurors asked to go home at 5 p.m. yesterday after having been out 18 hours since Thursday.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the panel’s forewoman sent a handwritten note to Woodlock that read, “We have a juror who is assuming guilt over innocence. We are not sure how to go on from here. Any suggestions would be helpful.”
Woodlock assembled federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Local 25 Teamsters John Fidler, Daniel Redmond, Robert Cafarelli and Michael Ross.
After a brief discussion on how to respond, Woodlock sent back a note to the jury saying, “It is a cardinal principle of our system of justice that every person is presumed innocent unless or until his guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt from evidence properly introduced and admitted at trial.
“The presumption is not a mere formality,” he continued.
“It is a matter of the utmost importance.”
Judges typically convene deliberating jurors in open court first thing in the morning and right before they’re released for the day. Woodlock, however, has kept this panel out of sight.
It is not known for certain how deeply divided they may be or which, if any, defendants they may be unable to agree on.
Woodlock also said last night he’s not yet decided for how long he will keep jurors’ identities under seal once the trial concludes.
The Teamsters are each charged with conspiracy to extort and attempted extortion for allegedly threatening the cast and crew of the Bravo reality show “Top Chef” in 2014 with physical violence and economic harm in a failed attempt to land jobs as truck drivers for the nonunion production’s Boston-centric season 12.