ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702030050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The Washington Post
Three days of deliberations in the O.J. Simpson trial were scrapped and the jury was forced to start all over again Friday after the only black woman on the panel was removed for misconduct.
Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki ordered the new jury to ignore its 14 hours of deliberations. The new panel deliberated for about five hours before breaking for the weekend.
The female juror was removed after the Los Angeles district attorney's office faxed a letter to Fujisaki informing him that the juror's daughter works as a legal secretary at the district attorney's office, which prosecuted Simpson at his murder trial.
Sources said the dismissed juror, Rosemary Caraway, 62, once had dinner with former Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden. A spokesman for District Attorney Gil Garcetti confirmed that the office sent the letter about the daughter's employment, but would not comment on the report of the dinner with Darden.
The disclosure prompted a request from Simpson's lawyers for a mistrial, which was denied, and a move by the plaintiffs to sequester the jury for the rest of its deliberations. The judge turned that down, too.
Caraway, a retired telephone company dispatcher, was replaced with an Asian American man in his 30s. The new jury consists of six men and six women: nine whites, one Hispanic, one Asian American and one person of Asian and black heritage - a sharp contrast to the mostly black, mostly female jury that acquitted Simpson at his criminal trial in 1995.
Fujisaki removed Caraway over objections from the plaintiffs and told the newly reconstituted jury: ``Each remaining juror must set aside and disregard the earlier deliberations as if they had not taken place.''
Some jurors appeared discouraged by the development. Simpson was not present at the courthouse.
District Attorney Gil Garcetti's office said it had notified the judge about the juror's connection. ``We only learned yesterday afternoon that she was a sitting juror,'' said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Garcetti's office. ``We immediately communicated this information to the court.''
Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Garcetti's office, said the daughter does not report directly to Garcetti. Sources said she is a high-level legal secretary who works in the district attorney's front office.
It was the second major snag in the trial this week. On Tuesday, jurors were questioned by the judge after reports surfaced that two jurors from the murder trial had sent a letter to jurors in the civil case to promote a deal for public appearances after the trial.
The judge ordered an investigation, and sheriff's deputies searched the home of Brenda Moran, who had been a juror in the criminal case, on Thursday night and again Friday. They also searched cars and questioned Moran and her parents.
Moran acknowledged writing the letter but said it was supposed to be delivered after the verdict. The letter suggested that jurors contact agent Bud Stewart to represent them in dealings with the media.
``I had no idea it was going to cause so much of a problem. We just wanted to help them because we've been there,'' the other former juror involved in the letter, Gina Rosborough, said on TV's ``Hard Copy.''
A fax signed by Stewart was sent to news producers this week offering to arrange interviews with three jurors from the civil trial.
Rosborough and Moran announced after the October 1995 verdict that they were writing a book, and Stewart, representing them, predicted it would be ``explosive.'' No book was issued.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB