Opinion ID: 1871050
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: alleged sleeping juror.

Text: Appellant filed a CR 60.02 motion for a new trial on grounds that he learned from a newspaper reporter that a juror had been sleeping during the trial. The trial judge admitted that the allegation was brought to its attention in a note from another juror, identified as the foreperson of the jury, at the conclusion of the guilt-phase closing argument but did not state what action, if any, he took in response to the note. The note is not in the record and no evidence from either the juror who wrote it or the news reporter was offered in support of the motion for a new trial. [A] juror's inattentiveness is a form of juror misconduct, which may prejudice the defendant and require the granting of a new trial. Lester v. Commonwealth, 132 S.W.3d 857, 862 (Ky.2004). However, as a threshold matter, the aggrieved party must present some evidence that the juror was actually asleep or that some prejudice resulted from that fact. The record does not even disclose at what point during the trial the juror allegedly slept, whether during the Commonwealth's or the defense's presentation of evidence, or during closing argument by counsel, [8] or how Appellant was harmed by the occurrence. For a court even to entertain an objection on this basis after final judgment, a party must certainly show more than Appellant has in the case sub judice. See Tanner v. United States, 483 U.S. 107, 120-21, 107 S.Ct. 2739, 2747-48, 97 L.Ed.2d 90 (1987) (Allegations of juror misconduct, incompetency, or inattentiveness, raised for the first time days, weeks, or months after the verdict, seriously disrupt the finality of the process.). Moreover, [t]he trial judge is in the best position to determine the nature of alleged juror misconduct and the appropriate remedies for any demonstrated misconduct. United States v. Sherrill, 388 F.3d 535, 537 (6th Cir.2004). Without some evidence beyond bare unsworn hearsay statements that a juror was asleep at some point during the trial, this Court is unwilling to find an abuse of discretion by the trial court. Powell v. Louisville & N.R. Co., 172 Ky. 285, 189 S.W. 213, 214-15 (1916) ([N]o objection having been made during the progress of the trial to this fact, it is evident that even if the juror did nod at some time during the trial it was not for a sufficient length of time to have attracted the attention of any one of the . . . able counsel representing appellant[]. . . .); see also Young v. Commonwealth, 50 S.W.3d 148, 164 (Ky.2001) (mistrial not required when juror, upon inquiry by court, denied being asleep); Shrout v. Commonwealth, 226 Ky. 660, 11 S.W.2d 726, 727 (1928).