Special Hearing Friday as 3rd Day of Deliberations Begin
Special to The Vanguard
Completely unexpectedly, about midday Thursday – after a day and a half of deliberation – the jury in the Mayor Kevin Johnson Pie Thrower case called the judge and reported that it was “hung” and could not make a unanimous decision on either of two charges, a felony and misdemeanor, facing alleged pie tosser Sean Thompson.
At 1:30 p.m. Thursday the jurors entered the courtroom and confirmed their deadlock, only saying that they had votes of 9-3 and 7-5 on the two charges most recently, not stating which way those votes went – guilty or not guilty.
The court sent them back to deliberate, but only after the jury requested clarification on questions involving what “official duties” the mayor has – the defense argued that Thompson could only be guilty of assaulting the mayor when he was involved in “official duties,” because attending a private charter school fundraiser, where he was pied, was not official duties.
Other jury questions involved definitions of “harmful,” key to a guilty charge – another point the defense emphasized during lengthy closing arguments, noting that the former Sacramento mayor was not harmed, other than maybe his ego, when hit in the face with a coconut cream pie.
A special hearing will be held Friday morning to decide on answers to those juror questions after which the jury will enter its third day of deliberations – with a few hiccups along the way, in a case that Sacramento County DA Anthony Ortiz promised was “simple.”
Do you liberation continues on Monday. Deliberation will last longer than the actual trial
??? Cannot parse that comment… the first sentence…
Deliberation
k…
Most disturbing. The facts of the case are very plain and undisputed.
The facts may be, but the appropriate crime clearly isn’t
Am thinking infraction or misdemeanor, at most… in spite of the literal interpretation of the law cited elsewhere… even is the ‘SOB’ was self-aggrandizing, I see no real “felony”… at least as to the pie-ing… what followed is probably misdemeanor, possibly a low-level felony…
“what followed is probably misdemeanor, possibly a low-level felony…”
Meaning?