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The New York Times/ - Politics, Sáb, 31 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Rape-Case Juror Called District Attorney
‘Wonderful’ Friend in Note
In late 2008, Lloyd E. Constantine, a lawyer and
longtime adviser to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, nearly
gushed with affection when he explained in a letter to
two candidates that he was not choosing one over the
other in the election for Manhattan district attorney.
Mr. Constantine called the candidates, Cyrus R. Vance
Jr. and Richard Aborn, “wonderful friends” and said in
the letter, which he released on Thursday, that he
looked forward to their “continuing friendship.”
But when Mr. Constantine was asked during the recent
jury-selection process for the trial of a police officer
facing rape charges whether he had any friends in law
enforcement, including in the district attorney’s office,
he did not mention Mr. Vance, who won the 2009
election. Mr. Constantine was chosen as a juror.
That omission became a central focus of the trial
during jury deliberations this week, when another juror
complained to the judge that Mr. Constantine had
mentioned that he was a former law partner of Mr.
Aborn. The other juror wondered whether Mr.
Constantine might be holding the prosecution to an
unduly high standard. It was then that Mr. Vance’s
office realized the Mr. Constantine on the jury
occasionally played tennis with the district attorney.
Since the juror’s complaint on Tuesday, State
Supreme Court in Manhattan has buzzed with
comments from lawyers critical of Mr. Constantine for
not divulging the relationship, which could have led to
lawyers on the case challenging his presence on the
jury.
“He knows better than this,” said Thomas J. Curran, a
defense lawyer and former prosecutor in the
Manhattan district attorney’s office. “By any objective
standard, that information should have been
volunteered.”
The jury convicted the officer, Michael Pena, of
criminal sexual assault and predatory sexual assault,
charges that could send him to prison for life, but it
deadlocked on two counts of rape and related charges
on which the judge declared a mistrial.
Mr. Constantine was one of three jurors who declined
to convict Mr. Pena on rape charges, according to one
member of the jury who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. In an e-mail on Friday, Mr. Constantine
challenged that account but declined to cite specifics
because, he said, the jurors had agreed not to discuss
their deliberations publicly.
The deadlock on charges so central to the case
frustrated other members of the jury, raised the
possibility of a retrial on those charges and resulted in
a painfully incomplete resolution for the 25-year-old
victim, a second-grade teacher who gasped and
buckled in the courtroom when the mistrial was
announced.
In mid-March, as the sides prepared for trial, dozens of
jurors were led through a questioning process. Each
received a list of questions to be answered orally in
front of the judge and lawyers.
Question No. 7 asked: “Do you have any friends or
relatives in law enforcement, i.e., police, F.B.I., district
attorney,” according to a copy obtained by The New
York Times.
A transcript of the jury selection has not been
completed. Mr. Constantine acknowledged, and others
confirmed, that he did not mention Mr. Vance.
After the other juror complained, Mr. Constantine
explained to the judge and the lawyers on the case
why he had decided not to do so. He said he had
weighed the issue and decided that his relationships
would not affect his assessment of the case. He also
said that he thought mentioning Mr. Vance or Mr.
Aborn would make it appear as though he was trying
to shirk jury duty.
The judge and the lawyers accepted his explanation,
and deliberations continued with Mr. Constantine on
the jury.
In an interview just after the trial ended, Mr.
Constantine said no question even came close to
soliciting a mention of his relationships with Mr. Aborn
and Mr. Vance.
“I wasn’t asked a question,” he said. “There weren’t
any close calls there. There wasn’t any hairsplitting.”
On Thursday, his office sent the 2008 letter to The
Times, in which Mr. Constantine wrote that if asked by
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