Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

Juror in Auffenberg case charged with bribery

Two jurors talked about whether they could get $3,000 to $5,000 to deliver a not-guilty verdict, then tried to bribe an attorney for metro-east car dealer Jamie Auffenberg, federal prosecutors say.

One of the jurors in Auffenberg's tax evasion and fraud trial in the U.S. Virgin Islands faces contempt and bribery charges filed Friday, and a second juror is under investigation, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Murphy in the Virgin Islands.

A federal jury in March acquitted Auffenberg and his co-defendants on 21 counts stemming from a government-sanctioned tax shelter for U.S. businessmen willing to invest and live part-time in the Virgin Islands.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, Murphy said the acquittal will stand.

"Double jeopardy is double jeopardy," he said.

The first juror, Dorothy Hendricks, 54, of St. Croix, was charged after federal prosecutors said she called one of Auffenberg's defense attorneys, identified in court papers only as "Attorney X," on the evening of March 1 and asked how much he would pay for an acquittal.

Attorney X, who lives in the Virgin Islands, reported the incident to a judge the next morning.

Auffenberg's defense team immediately asked the judge to declare a mistrial, lead attorney Clyde Kuehn of Belleville said Friday.

Instead, the judge removed Hendricks from the jury on March 3, questioned the other jurors, then replaced Hendricks with an alternate juror and instructed the jury to start from the beginning with their deliberations.

A day later, the jury delivered its not-guilty verdict.

FBI agents interviewed Hendricks on March 6, two days after the jury verdict, and she admitted she called Attorney X and asked him a question, but couldn't remember the question, according to court documents.

Hendricks then told FBI agents that during a break in the trial, she talked with another juror, identified in court papers on as Juror X. During that discussion, Hendricks said Juror X told her that "it sure would be nice to make change out of this," FBI Special Agent Thomas Drummond stated in an affidavit filed Friday in federal court in St. Croix.

On Feb. 27, less than a week before the verdict, Hendricks told agents that Juror X gave her a piece of paper with a figure of $3,000 to $5,000 on it. Juror X then told Hendricks that someone, identified as Person X, would call her, the affidavit stated. Juror X said Person X was someone associated with the Auffenberg case, according to the affidavit.

Hendricks never got a call, so she called Attorney X herself and told him that for $3,000 or $5,000, they could make a deal, court records state.

Hendricks later told Juror X that she tried to call Attorney X, but did not reach him. Juror X told Hendricks not to worry about it, according to court records.

None of this came out prior to the verdict being delivered, and Juror X was not removed from the jury.

Kuehn said that he and the other defense lawyers knew nothing of any other misconduct on the part of the remaining jurors.

"The only juror we were aware that did anything untoward we reported immediately," Kuehn said. "We also moved for a mistrial because we argued her removal from the jury could potentially taint the process going forward, which, in retrospect, would have been a mistake on our part."

Auffenberg, 58, one of the region's largest car dealers, had been accused of illegally evading more than $8.5 million in federal income taxes by taking part in Kapok Management, L.P., a $300 million tax shelter based in the Virgin Islands, according to the original 21-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury in March 2007 in East St. Louis. He was found not guilty on March 4.