Chapo may get a new chance
Juror tells media: We broke rules
El Chapo may have one more escape up his sleeve.
Some members of the Brooklyn jury that last week convicted the cocaine kingpin on all charges — all but securing him a life spent in solitary confinement — closely followed media coverage of the case despite repeated warnings not to, according to one of the jurors.
“The judge said, ‘You can’t talk about the case among each other,’ but we broke that rule a bunch of times,” the anonymous juror told Vice News in an interview published Wednesday, adding at least five jurors further violated the judge’s instructions by regularly checking Twitter feeds from journalists covering the trial.
A lawyer for El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman Loera, said the claim was “deeply concerning and distressing” — and indicated the defense team may file a motion to set aside the guilty verdict.
“The issues raised in today’s Vice News article regarding possible juror misconduct in Joaquin Guzmán’s trial are deeply concerning and distressing. The juror’s allegations of the jury’s repeated and widespread disregard and contempt for the court’s instructions, if true, make it clear that Joaquin did not get a fair trial,” attorney Eduardo Balarezo said. “The information apparently accessed by the jury is highly prejudicial, uncorroborated and inadmissible, all reasons why the court repeatedly warned the jury against using social media and the internet to investigate the case. We will review all available options before deciding on a course of action. Needless to say, we will enforce and vindicate Joaquin’s constitutional right to a fair trial.”
A legal expert said that unlike Guzman’s trial, the burden of proof regarding the bombshell claims by the anonymous juror is on the defense.
“The allegations that the juror made in the article, if they’re proven to be wellfounded and supported by other evidence, could give grounds for a new trial,” said attorney David Weinstein, former head of the international drug trafficking unit at the Miami U.S. attorney’s office that made up part of the team that prosecuted El Chapo. However, Weinstein noted it’s also in the government’s interest to get to the root of the allegations.
“If I’m the U.S. attorney’s office or the Department of Justice, I want an answer to this question, quite frankly, because I don’t want the conviction to be overturned five years from now when all these witnesses have disappeared ... (and) when it’s nearly impossible to put this case back together again if it’s required for a retrial,” Weinstein said. Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan regularly admonished jurors regarding the importance of avoiding news coverage during the 12-week trial, sometimes multiple times a day. But the anonymous juror said on at least one occasion, one person on the jury checked news verage on a smartwatch ile inside the courthouse — ere cell phones and other vices are banned — after gan met with jurors to see if ey had seen any media covge. Cogan told them they were e to talk about the case after ey reached a verdict. The anonymous juror — ho kept notes taken during the trial against the judge’s instructions, according to Vice — also said the jury struggled with the decision to convict Chapo. “A lot of people were having difficulty thinking about him being in solitary confinement, because, well, you know, we’re all human beings, people make mistakes, etc.,” said the juror, adding the reason deliberations stretched on for six days was mainly due to one “stubborn” holdout who kept changing her mind. The juror said that several members broke down in tears after the guilty verdict, upset over having to send Chapo away for life. “We were all pretty sad, in a way,” the juror said.