Opinion ID: 198819
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Juror Misconduct Claim

Text: 42 Appellants fault the district court for failing to voir dire the jury after counsel to John Meuse reported having observed jurors examining one another's notes. Appellants insist that the trial judge was duty-bound to investigate these allegations. See, e.g., United States v. Ortiz-Arrigoitia, 996 F.2d 436, 442 (1st Cir. 1993). 43 As the district courts are better situated to determine whether juror misconduct occurred and prejudice resulted, we normally review their remediation measures only for a patent abuse of discretion. See United States v. Cruz, 156 F.3d 22, 28 (1st Cir. 1998). The trial judge is not . . . shackled to a rigid and unyielding set [of] rules and procedures that compel any particular form or scope of inquiry, Ortiz-Arrigoitia, 996 F.2d at 443, but should be left free to fashion a remedy appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, see id. 44 As counsel for John Meuse was the one person in the courtroom who reportedly observed the alleged misconduct, the district court simply instructed the jurors that they were not to look at each other's notes. Since appellants failed to move for a mistrial, the remediation measures selected by the district court are reviewed only for plain error. See id. at 442. And since the misconduct in question was uncorroborated, 16 and did not raise the same specter of prejudice as improper outside influences upon the jury, cf. id. at 443 (voir dire conducted where juror allegedly discussed case with daughter, who was seen speaking with defendant's girlfriend); cf. also United States v. Bertoli, 40 F.3d 1384, 1394 (3d Cir. 1994), we find no plain error.