Opinion ID: 754615
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Juror and Prosecutorial Misconduct

Text: 71 The appellants contend the district court erred in failing to grant their motion for a mistrial or, in the alternative, a new trial due to a newspaper article that appeared in the local press during jury deliberations. They claim both juror and prosecutorial misconduct. 72 Jury deliberations began on a Friday. On Sunday, the local newspaper published an article entitled Colombian Held in Wake of '95 Drug Haul with San Diego Link. The article discusses the arrest of Jose Castrillon, the alleged owner of the Nataly I. The article begins by referring to the seizure of cocaine on the Nataly I and the arrest of the crew. It then links Castrillon to the Cali cartel. In the middle of the fourteen paragraph article, it reports Errol Chavez, Special Agent in charge of the San Diego office of the DEA, as saying that the information developed in San Diego played a major role in the arrest. The penultimate paragraph reads: Chavez said he had not been involved in the interrogation of the 10 crew members of the Nataly I and could not say whether they had shed much light on Castrillon. 73 The news reporter's investigation was prompted in part by an article that appeared in a Panamanian newspaper. The day the Panamanian news article appeared, the reporter called the prosecution to ask for comments regarding any connection between the Nataly I and the Castrillon arrest. The prosecution refused to comment because of the ongoing jury deliberations. Although the prosecution had previously told the DEA and all the other government agencies involved in this case not to communicate with the press, the prosecution failed specifically to instruct the DEA not to discuss the Castrillon arrest. 74 The prosecution brought the newspaper article to the district court's attention before the jury began its deliberations on Monday. The district court denied the defense motion for a mistrial and called in the jury. The court chose not to mention the article to the jury. Instead, the court carefully instructed the jury on what they could and could not consider as evidence, and specifically instructed the jury not to pay attention to newspaper accounts. 75 After the trial was over, the district court polled each of the jurors. Six of the jurors had seen the article; four jurors had read it. The jurors did not discuss the substance of the article in the jury room, although one juror mentioned to a fellow juror that there was an article relating to the case. All jurors reported that the article had not influenced their decision.
76 A trial court should grant a new trial when the jury obtains or uses evidence that has not been introduced during trial if there is a reasonable possibility that the extrinsic material could have affected the verdict. United States v. Hernandez-Escarsega, 886 F.2d 1560, 1580 (9th Cir.1989) (internal quotations, citations and emphasis omitted). We have found reversible error when there is a direct and rational connection between the extrinsic material and a prejudicial jury conclusion, as distinguished from a connection that arises only by irrational reasoning. United States v. Bagnariol, 665 F.2d 877, 885 (9th Cir.1981) (whether a nonexistent company was listed in business publications is not rationally related to whether defendants believed the company was a front). 77 Here, the appellants argue that the newspaper article was prejudicial because the jury could have used it to decide that the appellants knew about the cocaine on the Nataly I. 2 To make that inference, the jurors would have had to believe that Chavez's statement (that he could not say whether the crew members had shed much light on Castrillon), combined with the statement that information developed in San Diego led to Castrillon's arrest, implied that the appellants provided information which led to Castrillon's arrest. 78 Such a conclusion does not follow. The fact that the appellants were interrogated does not mean that they provided information, or that they knew anything about the cocaine on board the Nataly I. The statement in the newspaper article does not support the appellants' claim of juror misconduct.
79 The appellants contend that DEA Agent Chavez's statement as reported in the newspaper article constituted prosecutorial misconduct. We disagree. 80 As discussed above, Chavez's statement did not provide a basis for any inference against the appellants as to their knowledge of cocaine aboard the vessel. Further, the court instructed the jury not to consider newspaper articles, and the jury did not discuss the content of the article. Most importantly, the prosecution had nothing to do with publication of the newspaper article. Cf. United States v. Coast of Maine Lobster Co., 538 F.2d 899, 901-02 (1st Cir.1976) (prosecutor controlled the timing and content of a televised interview and newspaper article which appeared during trial). There was no prosecutorial misconduct.