HOLLISTER
– Defense attorney Arthur Cantu wants a Superior Court judge to
declare a mistrial in the vehicular manslaughter conviction of
Robert Orabuena because of possible juror misconduct.
HOLLISTER – Defense attorney Arthur Cantu wants a Superior Court judge to declare a mistrial in the vehicular manslaughter conviction of Robert Orabuena because of possible juror misconduct.
An unnamed juror was removed from the panel hearing during the Orabuena manslaughter trial Friday because of his reported close ties to the San Benito County District Attorney’s Office and for questionable conduct during the two-and- a-half-day trial.
“We are going to set this for a motion for a mistrial because apparently juror number 12 did speak to at least one more juror about charges related to Mr. Orabuena that were not before the court,” Cantu said.
District Attorney John Sarsfield said he does not believe the matter is as serious as Cantu is making it sound.
“I would be surprised if that was accurate,” Sarsfield said.
He said the removal of the juror from the panel should be sufficient and that a mistrial is not really warranted.
“As I understand it, the juror was excused,” Sarsfield said.
The juror, whose name was not released, was removed from the jury in the middle of the trial when it was reportedly determined he may have lied to the court and attorneys during the jury selection process.
“There was an agreement between (Deputy District Attorney Denny Wei) and myself that he be removed from the case after it was discovered that he was a financial contributor to Mr. Sarsfield during his campaign and that (Thursday) he went and sought Mr. Sarsfield’s advice and support in an upcoming election,” Cantu said.
The juror, who is running for the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, reportedly went to Sarsfield’s office Thursday while the trial was still under way and asked him for his support in the March 2 primary.
Cantu said he is not accusing Sarsfield of any wrongdoing, but the juror’s conduct went beyond what is considered acceptable conduct.
Cantu said he caught the unnamed juror in what may have been a lie to the court.
“He told the court that he did not contribute to Mr. Sarsfield’s campaign, and then I produced a filed contribution list that included his name,” Cantu said. “When confronted with that, he did admit to contributing to the campaign of Mr. Sarsfield.”
Cantu said the roots of the juror’s connection to the district attorney may go deeper than that.
“In fact, (the juror’s) wife worked for state Sen. Bruce McPherson along with Sarsfield’s wife. None of that was disclosed during the (jury selection) process,” Cantu said.
Despite what may have been dishonesty on the juror’s part, Cantu said it was unlikely he will face perjury charges.
“The judge did not believe that he was being dishonest and that he in fact may have forgotten about the contribution,” Cantu said.
He said even though juror number 12 was removed from the jury, it may have been too late because he apparently violated the judge’s direction not to bring in information on or talk about other cases that may be connected to the trial they were hearing. The juror reportedly told at least one other juror about Orabuena having been tried on a similar charge nearly a decade ago. He was found not guilty in the earlier case.
“It is our understanding that they did discuss felony charges that were not before the court,” Cantu said. “We found out during the deliberations that he had done this, and we will be interviewing further to find out everything that had been said.”
Cantu said he disagrees with Sarsfield and that the juror’s behavior is cause for real concern.
“For him, as a juror, to go during the middle of a trial to ask Mr. Sarsfield for a political favor seems highly suspicious to me,” Cantu said. “That’s why I think Mr. Wei did the right thing by stipulating to his removal from the jury.”
He said they learned about the juror’s alleged activities and the information he was talking about with at least one other juror by interviewing a juror with a judge’s permission.
“We hope to do more interviews before our pleading this week,” Cantu said.
