From the Tribune: 
 
Report claims Ryan juror may have spoken about case outside of court 
 
By Matt O'Connor and Gerry Doyle 
Tribune staff reporters 
Published April 12, 2006, 7:33 AM CDT 
 
 Jurors in former Gov. George Ryan's corruption trial will return to work this morning after another snag developed that sent them home early yesterday. 
 
 Lawyers met behind closed doors with a federal judge for about 31⁄2 hours Tuesday. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is presiding over the marathon trial, gave no public explanation for the private meeting, but WLS-Ch. 7 reported that the discussions concerned a caller to a radio talk show who claimed that a female juror had discussed the case with him in possible violation of a court order. 
 
 Tuesday night, the radio station, WLS-AM, released a copy of the March 28 conversation with the caller, who said his name was "Dennis." Dennis said the juror was a client of his dry-cleaning business. 
 
 Dennis defended the juror, saying she hadn't told him much. He also said he told the juror about a media report quoting a relative of a dismissed juror as saying no one who remained on the jury was on Ryan's side. 
 
 "She did not believe that statement was made and then she mentioned ... she said that's one of the reasons [the juror's] off the jury," Dennis said on Roe Conn's show. 
 
 The judge has repeatedly barred jurors from discussing the evidence with anyone, even spouses, and prohibited them from hearing media accounts of the trial. 
 
 The Channel 7 report said the defense in the Ryan trial had subpoenaed WLS-AM radio for the conversation with Conn. 
 
 At the radio station's Loop offices Tuesday night, Conn said he realized at the time of the call that a juror may have improperly discussed the case, but he also knew from experience that anonymity can foster wild claims on the air. 
 
 "We have to be always a little bit skeptical," Conn said. "You never know where [callers] are going. But the more [Dennis] went on, the more veracity he had." 
 
 In a telephone interview last week with the Tribune, which had been tipped off about the call to the radio talk show, WLS-AM manager John Gallagher minimized the significance of the call. 
 
 "We don't even know who the caller was," Gallagher said. "It wasn't really substantial." 
 
 The station declined last week to hand over a copy of the on-air conversation to the Tribune and said at the time that none of the parties in the trial had sought a copy. 
 
 The six-woman, six-man jury left two hours early Tuesday. A staffer for Pallmeyer said jurors would resume deliberations Wednesday morning. 
 
 The deliberations have played out over the last month amid controversy. 
 
 Last month Pallmeyer excused two jurors, replaced them with alternates and ordered that deliberations start over. 
 
 The two jurors were excused after the Tribune uncovered that both had apparently concealed arrest records during jury selection in September. 
 
 The original jury had deliberated eight days before the judge suspended deliberations after the disclosures. 
 
 Ryan's lawyers sought a mistrial, but Pallmeyer refused, though she held out the possibility of changing her mind if she decided that the second round of deliberations was unfair. 
 
 After the Tribune reported to court officials its findings about the first of those two jurors, Pallmeyer quickly went public with the fact that she was investigating a matter about a juror. 
 
 By contrast, she made no such announcement on Tuesday. 
 
 The judge has previously sealed discussions about juror issues, citing their privacy as justification. And lawyers in the case have been prohibited by the judge from talking to reporters since the final days of the trial. 
 
 Tuesday marked the eighth day of deliberations for the reconstituted jury. 
 
 In recent days, the jury has sent out few notes with questions, giving the appearance that it is making headway through the voluminous evidence presented over 51⁄2 months of testimony. 
 
 Ryan and co-defendant Lawrence Warner, a lobbyist, are on trial on charges that Ryan, as secretary of state, steered millions of dollars in state contracts and leases to Warner and other friends in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits. Both deny any wrongdoing. 
 
Tribune staff reporter Rudolph Bush contributed to this report. 
 
WLS-AM transcript 
The following is a transcript of a March 28 conversation between a caller, WLS-AM's Roe Conn and WLS-Channel 7 anchor Ron Magers. The radio station released the transcript Tuesday night. 
 
Caller: I have a small business and one of my customers is on the jury and today I saw her for the first time in quite awhile and we were talking briefly about it. 
 
Magers: I don't want to know this. 
 
Conn: This is a guy claiming. We really don't know for sure. Go ahead. 
 
Caller: She mentioned that they really hadn't started the deliberations yet. That basically up to this point in time they've been going over the rules that they were given. 
 
Conn: Now we've heard that . . . sent note back saying 148 pages of jury instructions. (edited) 
 
Caller: Exactly, and so I mentioned to her that if they were to add two new jurors that shouldn't be a problem if they hadn't started deliberations yet, and that's what she was hoping would happen because like she said everyone on that jury with her had put so much time in already there would be a sure waste to see them walk away today and say a mistrial. 
 
Conn: Not in anyone's best interest to have mistrial . . . (edited) 
 
Magers: And the next time you see your customer do him or her a favor and tell him the last thing the judge told them when they sent them out was don't talk about this trial. 
 
Conn: (shouting) Don't tell your dry cleaner! 
 
Magers: Don't talk about this trial. 
 
Caller: She's actually been very good. She has not disclosed . . . 
 
Conn: Except for that. By the way I think he's guilty as hell. 
 
Caller: Although I did mention to her about the statement they made on Channel 7 last night. 
 
Magers: Oh no, I don't want to know this either. 
 
Caller: She did not believe that statement was made and then she mentioned, she said that's one of the reasons she's off the jury. 
 
Conn: All right, thank you Dennis. 
-- WLS-AM