Jurors signal no quick verdict in Fawell trial

From the Chicago Tribune:

Jurors signal no quick verdict in Fawell trial

By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer

March 12, 2003, 3:06 PM CST

Jurors weighing federal racketeering charges against former Gov. George Ryan’s longtime top aide, Scott Fawell, sent a clear signal Wednesday that they don’t expect to reach a quick verdict.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer called attorneys to her courtroom at mid-morning Wednesday and said jurors had numerous questions, including whether they would have to work on Friday.

``We have had quite a lot of communication from this jury,’’ Pallmeyer said. ``They have been deliberating generously — generously — for 4 1/2 hours and we already have had five notes.’’

One of the notes said: ``One of our jurors cannot be here on Friday — is that a problem.’’ Pallmeyer said she would not answer immediately.

Fawell, 45, and the Citizens for Ryan campaign committee are charged in a nine-count indictment with using state employees working on state time and taxpayer dollars to operate Ryan campaigns for almost a decade.

The case, an outgrowth of the government’s five-year Operation Safe Road investigation, focuses mainly on things that happened in the eight years Ryan was secretary of state before his 1998 election as governor.

Fawell was Ryan’s chief of staff in the secretary of state’s office and managed his 1998 campaign. Ryan has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Attorneys say that whatever Fawell may have done has been done for years in Illinois politics. They say he shouldn’t be blamed if a few campaign workers went too far and violated the law.

Jurors began deliberating over eight weeks of testimony and mounds of exhibits at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday and went home two hours later. They returned to the courthouse at 9 a.m. Wednesday and resumed their work.

Almost as soon as they went into the jury room, they began sending out notes, Pallmeyer said.

They initially wanted copies of Pallmeyer’s instructions to them. Those were sent into the jury room. They then asked for permission to halt work at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. That was granted.

They also asked for 12 highlighters, which Pallmeyer sent them. And they wanted the judge to send in one juror’s notes. She did.

They then asked the judge to send them two charts used by prosecutors during closing arguments, explaining the complex racketeering count. She sent them 8 1/2 by 11 papers that contained the material on the charts.

On Wednesday morning, the jurors asked for written copies of the stipulations that lawyers made during the trial. Stipulations are statements agreed to by both sides at a trial saying what evidence would be if presented from the witness stand. They are time-saving devices.

Some of the stipulations were not written down, and Pallmeyer sent the jurors a note telling them to ``rely on your memory for all of the evidence in reaching a verdict.’’

The jurors also asked for copies of the indictment for each member of the jury. One copy of the indictment is already in the jury room.

Defense attorney Marc Martin objected to sending in 12, saying he had not wanted any copies of the indictment in the jury room because it contained ``too much preamble’’ that he said could create bias.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said he didn’t see how it would be better to have just one copy of the indictment in the room ``with everybody crowding around, leaning over everybody’s shoulders to read it.’’