Opinion ID: 462493
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Juror's Association with FBI Agent

Text: 200 After trial it came to light that one of the jurors, Douglas Plinska, had played on a softball team with one James McDermott, an FBI agent, during the preceding softball season. During voir dire, the jurors had been asked whether they knew or were related to any past or present employee of the FBI, and juror Plinska did not respond affirmatively. 201 Librizzi moved for a new trial. At a hearing on the motion Judge Evans questioned Plinska at length. When asked when he first learned that McDermott was an FBI agent, Plinska replied that he was fairly certain that it was at an awards banquet held after the trial was over, though [i]t could have been before. When asked to comment on the charge that he was deliberately untruthful in voir dire, he replied that he did not know an FBI agent when the question was asked. Judge Evans denied the motion for a new trial, finding that while Plinska knew McDermott before the trial, he did not socialize with him, and he did not know that McDermott was an FBI agent until the awards banquet after the trial. 202 We will reverse the denial of a motion for a new trial only for an abuse of discretion. Judge Evans's decision hinged on his finding that Plinska did not know that McDermott was an FBI agent until after trial. If that finding is correct, then clearly there was no abuse of discretion. We must accept the trial judge's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. We find no clear error here. 203 To be sure, Librizzi submitted the affidavit of a third member of the softball team, who averred that at the awards banquet he had heard Plinska tell McDermott that he (Plinska) had answered No when asked by the judge if he knew any member of the FBI. Librizzi also submitted the affidavit of the owner of the restaurant that sponsored the softball team, who averred that at an organizational meeting of the team in the spring of 1983, he was introduced to McDermott as an FBI agent within the sight and hearing of Plinska. But these averments are fully consistent with Judge Evans's finding that Plinska did not know until the awards banquet that McDermott was an FBI agent. That finding turned principally on Judge Evans's assessment of Plinska's credibility when he testified under oath. Judge Evans was in a much better position to judge Plinska's credibility than we are, and we find no reason to hold that his determination was clearly erroneous.