Suspended Lawyer Is Hauled into Court, Admits She Lied About Legal Past to Get on Jury
A suspended lawyer who served on a jury that convicted a Jenkens & Gilchrist partner in a tax fraud case admitted on Wednesday that she hid her legal past..
Catherine Conrad testified after she was arrested, hauled into court and promised limited immunity, report the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and the New York Law Journal. She had notified the court earlier in the day that she did not plan to show up for a hearing into her failure to disclose information during voir dire. She was given immunity after asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Conrad maintained she was “a very unbiased juror” even though she failed to disclose she was a suspended lawyer with an arrest record. She said she lied to get on the jury because she missed the dynamics of the courtroom, according to the New York Law Journal account.
Conrad sparred with lawyers, insisting that the only psychological medication she takes is “water” and denying that she had been arrested for shoplifting greeting cards. “No, it was a bag of shrimp,” she said.
Conrad and other jurors convicted four defendants accused of tax-shelter fraud, including lawyer Paul Daugerdas, who once headed the Chicago office at the now closed law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist.
