Lawyer’s inquiry about juror triggers mistrial

High Court judge Justice Rickie Burnett has declared a mistrial and discharged a jury in a case in which a lawyer denied communicating with a juror.

The lawyer, Linton Lewis, however, told iWitness News that he had asked someone else about a comment that a juror allegedly made about him.

Lewis said he did not know until the judge raised the matter in court on June 30 that the juror’s alleged comment was reportedly made in the jury room.

The issue arose as Lewis was scheduled to call his last witness in the matter, in which another judge, Justice Brian Cottle, had recused himself and declared a mistrial after an exchange with Lewis in the presence of the jury.

iWitness News was reliably informed that on June 30, Burnett stated in open court that there were allegations of defence counsel being in communication with member(s) of the jury and that one of the jurors had worked with Lewis at one point.

The judge gave Lewis an opportunity to address the allegations and the lawyer denied communicating with any juror and also denied having knowledge that any of the jurors had worked with him.

However, the judge said that the juror had indicated discomfort continuing with the case.

Justice Burnett, therefore, discharged the jury and declared a mistrial.

With two mistrials having been declared in the same matter, each while a different judge was presiding, it is not clear how the prosecution will proceed.

Burnett is currently the only judge presiding over criminal matters in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, Lewis told iWitness News that he saw no reason for the judge to declare a mistrial.

He said that the juror never worked with him and that he had known about the juror’s alleged statement since day two or three of the trial, which has been going on for over two months.

The lawyer further said he had done nothing wrong when he inquired about what the juror had allegedly said about him.

“… it was brought to my attention, there were some discussions about me. I don’t know —  one of the jurors discussed, whether in the jury room or where it was, but I called a friend of mine to find out if there’s any truth in what I’m hearing about the juror discussing me, and that was it,” Lewis told iWitness News.

“But, apparently, the person went back to clarify why the person (the juror) had to discuss me. They called the juror’s mother to clarify why it is the jury was discussing me as opposed to the case.

“Apparently, what happened, the juror said the discussion was in the jury room. That’s what she said the juror said …”

Lewis said that after the matter arose, the juror apparently got nervous for fear of being imprisoned.

He said that when Justice Burnett raised the matter, he told the court that “jurors discuss people all the time” and that he did not think that a mistrial should be declared.

The lawyer said that no member of the jury had spoken to him about what the juror had allegedly said about him.

“So, I didn’t know whether the discussion was held inside the jury room or whether it was held outside somewhere, because I heard it a long time ago, from the very second or third day of the matter,” Lewis said.

“I did nothing at all. I never spoke to any juror. No juror ever told me anything. What the judge said, one of the jurors worked with me. I said to him, no,” Lewis told iWitness News.

“I got [the juror’s] number, I spoke to [the juror]. I said, ‘Listen, how could you have told the judge that you worked with me? [The juror] said [they] didn’t tell the judge that.’

Lewis said that he told the court that when he (Lewis) was a politician, one of the jurors’ relatives had formed a group of which the juror was a member, adding that he never asked the juror to join the group.

“[The juror] never worked with me. I said that in court. I said work with somebody means you work in their house, in their chambers, and you work with them doing something somewhere. That never happened.”

The lawyer said he urged Justice Burnett not to declare a mistrial but the judge said that the juror had indicated discomfort with continuing, as jury room conversations were allegedly being related to people who were not on the panel.

But Lewis said that he, if anyone, should have been uncomfortable with the situation, but he had no issue with the trial continuing.

“I didn’t make a complaint to the court. I didn’t make a complaint to the judge. I did not make a complaint to the system. I said nothing. The only thing I did was to ask, at least to clarify whether or not the statements there had any truth in them.

“And that’s what the lady did. She called the [juror’s] mother to clarify — I don’t even know the [juror’s] mother — to clarify, to indicate that the [juror] is making certain statements.

“The issues, the statements weren’t about the case itself. If you are making statements about what is going to happen in the case, I can see that happening (a mistrial being declared), but the statements were about me, not the case itself…

“People can talk about people whatever they feel like, but it’s a case, and the evidence of a case is very important. … You may have people with their relatives and so on are the jurors. What is important is that you deal with the evidence of the case.

Lewis told iWitness News that the first mistrial in the matter came after he raised concerns about the prosecution’s handling of one of their witnesses, who appeared to be hostile to their case.

He said he told Justice Cottle that “this whole thing makes me feel very uncomfortable”, and the judge said he would recuse himself from the matter and declared a mistrial.

The lawyer said he was not sure what would happen now that a second mistrial has been declared.

“… that’s with the court system. But what I do know is that I will respond in the event that certain things — depending. But I don’t know, because I can’t say, I have not heard anything at all about that.”