Doctor’s sex crime case sent back
Judge rules for a retrial after jury misconduct
A South Florida foot surgeon has won a new trial on a video voyeurism charge after a judge found that juror misconduct resulted in an unjust verdict almost a year ago.
Scott Strolla, who treated patients in Palm Beach County before his trial, has been released from house arrest and may resume his podiatry practice, following Circuit Judge Kirk Volker’s rulings last month.
The 54-year-old Strolla also remains charged with two sexual battery counts stemming from an encounter with a younger woman over four years ago. The allegations were not connected with his job.
“We are ecstatic,” said defense attorney
Cory Strolla, who represents his older brother. “The judge ruled that the verdict was unlawful based not only on juror misconduct but juror bias, threw out the verdict, and as Dr. Strolla sits today, he is innocent until proven guilty, like everybody else in our system.”
Three months after the verdict, the previous judge overseeing the case, Daliah Weiss, found juror Katharine Susannah Amygdalitsis guilty of criminal contempt of
court and sentenced her to 25 hours of community service with a $250 fine.
But despite Weiss’s finding that the apologetic Amygdalitsis violated court orders by conducting outside research during the trial, the judge denied Strolla’s bid for a new trial.
The judge, siding with prosecutor Kristen Grimes, decided the juror’s violation did not impact the panel’s deliberations or affect the verdict.
“Though there was juror misconduct, it was not prejudicial to Defendant,” Weiss wrote, concluding “there is no evidence that it affected the verdict of any juror.”
Strolla’s attorney kept fighting, calling for more hearings after Weiss later left the case because of a personal conflict concerning a witness in the case.
On June 18, Judge Volker interviewed a second juror to learn more about the misconduct allegations. That convinced the judge the conviction could not stand.
He explained, “it cannot be said that (Amygdalitsis) did not discuss this knowledge that she reconfirmed by her Google search, with the (five) other jurors … resulting in a hung jury as to counts 1 and 2 (sexual battery,) and a verdict of guilty, as to count 3.”
Volker also wrote he was compelled to throw out the voyeurism conviction because of a statement allegedly made by Amygdalitsis in the jury room that showed bias against Strolla.
That comment, recalled by the other juror was, “You think I’m going to stick up for him because he is a doctor and has a boat and lives on the water, and he can get away with this?”
Volker found that Amygdalitsis disregarded Judge Weiss’ instructions “not to prejudge the case.”
“The statement reveals that juror Amygdalitsis harbored certain negative feelings about a person who has acquired wealth or social status, which may well have prevented her from making decisions based solely on the facts and law, which our jury system requires,” Volker wrote in his July 20 order.
Flynn Bertisch, attorney for Amygdalitsis, could not be reached for comment despite a call cellphone.
During a hearing last December, Amygdalitsis said she was sorry, and that she “did not share any information with anybody.”
Strolla’s 28-year-old accuser claims she was raped and photographed without her permission in Strolla’s home on April 3, 2016, after meeting him at a downtown West Palm Beach restaurant.
On the witness stand, Strolla testified the woman enjoyed the photos and wanted consensual sex. The jury also heard that he originally told investigators there was no intercourse and no pictures. Strolla’s account changed after he was arrested, following the discovery of the deleted photos and his DNA in semen swabbed from a hospital exam of the woman. His lawyer explained Strolla wasn’t thinking clearly because he took a sleeping pill after the encounter. The South Florida Sun Sentinel is not naming the woman because of the nature of the case. She was not one of his patients; Strolla said they had mutual Facebook friends before the incident.
She testified she drank alcohol and text to his that day and was asleep until slowly waking from the phone camera flashes and Strolla on top of her.
“I know I didn’t consent,” the woman said. “I don’t even remember getting there.”
The jury listened to her 911 call, which she placed while hiding in bushes outside Strolla’s home. She then said she thought she had been drugged before the attack. After nearly 12 hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Strolla on the voyeurism count, but was deadlocked on the sexual battery charges.
Strolla was briefly jailed after the trial, but then he was permitted to go on house arrest with the restriction that he could not see any patients. While the case is getting a total doover, Cory Strolla says his brother’s 25-year practice has been ruined as a result.
The pending charges against Strolla are punishable by up to 50 years in prison. While a date for the retrial has not been set, the next hearing in the case is set for Thursday.