Letter: Boynton cop’s jury was bullied

Weeks before a Boynton Beach police sergeant is set to be sentenced for lying to the FBI about a controversial police chase, a juror from his case wrote a letter saying some jurors bullied others into convicting the cop.

Philip Antico, 37, may face federal prison time when he is sentenced Feb. 5.

“After the trial I just couldn’t clear my conscious (sic),” Devin Andersen Treadway wrote. “The other jurors all used their prior misconceptions about police officers and their feeling of someone needing to be held accountable, where there wasn’t one bit of evidence showing he was guilty; which was our job.”

Jurors who tried to hold out with their not guilty decisions “finally gave in from exhaustion,” the letter said, adding “I know there are a handful of jurors that feel there was bullying going on.”

“If that’s an accurate description of what happened, we’d want to know,” Antico’s lawyer, Gregg Lerman said. “Bullying in school and at work is not acceptable and bullying by jurors in deliberations — when someone’s liberty and livelihood are at stake — obviously has no place in our society.

“We’re hoping other jurors will come forward and what happened.”

In November, Antico was found guilty of obstructing justice in the investigation of other officers’ beating of an unarmed man after a traffic chase. The jury found him not guilty of two counts of falsifying records

Antico, who was suspended with pay while the case was pending, did not participate in the chase or the beatings.

He issued orders over the police radio and later approved the officers’ reports.

He was the supervisor in charge of nine Boynton officers who took part in the chase that went up and down Interstate 95 and surrounding neighborhoods at up to 100 mph.

When the chase finally ended in Lake Worth, an overhead Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office helicopter recorded video that showed several of the officers beating, kicking, kneeing, punching and using stun guns on the driver and two passengers.

An older man and an older woman had decided on a guilty verdict before deliberations even began in Antico’s case, Treadway wrote.

The older man insinuated that he did not like cops and accused Treadway of “having a crush” on Sgt. Antico and letting it influence her not guilty verdict, the letter said.

The jury was split 50-50 after the first day of deliberations, tell us the letter said. The next day, a few others leaned toward a guilty verdict.

“They also mentioned that they didn’t think that Sgt. Antico was guilty, but they need to have someone responsible,” Treadway wrote. “After the very long and drawn out and emotional deliberation, we finally gave in from exhaustion and the fear that another jury would find him guilty for all three [charges].”

In the letter, Treadway said she ran into another juror a couple of weeks after the trial who said she also “felt like the wrong decision was made.”

Lerman said the defense will seek a new trial if he can prove there was jury misconduct.

“The verdict is supposed to be based on the evidence and, according to this juror, it wasn’t based on the evidence against Phil Antico,” he said.

Prosecutors and the defense are still wrangling over what punishment Antico could face when he is sentenced.

While Lerman said he will argue for a sentence of probation, he said Antico could face close to three years in federal prison, depending on the sentencing guidelines in the case.

The final decision would lie with U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg.