Sequestered juror's Internet surfing at issue in Palm Beach polo mogul's DUI manslaughter retrial
After juror issues required retrial of a multimillionaire charged with causing a fatal accident while driving drunk in his $200,000 Bentley, a Florida court selected the next jury in Tampa and then sequestered it.
But, barely a week after the new jury was secluded in an unidentified hotel, Palm Beach County Chief Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath received an early-morning text message Monday about a problem in the John Goodman retrial. Although juror laptops were supposed to be secured in a central location and viewed only when a sheriff’s deputy was present, that rule has been violated, according to the Sun Sentinel and WPBF.
A man identified as Juror No. 3 somehow obtained access to a laptop in his room and used it to surf the Internet. The juror said he simply visited two sports websites, but the judge was dubious, both because the juror violated Internet rules in the case and because he reportedly gave different accounts at different times concerning how he located the laptop, which a deputy said was missing at one nighttime check over the weekend.
Nonetheless, Colbath left the juror on the case, at least for now, because the defense objected to his removal.
Goodman, who founded the International Polo Club Palm Beach, is charged with drunken and manslaughter.
He is accused of speeding through a stop sign and striking a Hyundai Sonata driven by Scott Wilson, 23, which flipped upside-down into a nearby canal, where Wilson drowned. Prosecutors say Goodman’s blood-alcohol level after the accident was more than twice the legal limit, and they contend he waited an hour to call 911 for help.
Goodman’s defense says his Bentley convertible malfunctioned, lunging forward, at the time of the accident, Good Morning America reports. He has denied that he was drunk when the accident occurred.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Juror gets 6 months in contempt case over mistrial, was no ‘benign Mr. Magoo,’ judge says”
ABAJournal.com: “Potential juror is jailed over Internet research on billionaire’s DUI manslaughter case”
