MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — After less than three days of deliberations, a second juror has asked to be dismissed from the corruption trial of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, saying he'd just discovered that his boss is friendly with Silver.
The juror, a cab driver, told judge Valerie Caproni Monday that over the holiday break he learned the owner of his taxi medallion is “a guy that associates with Mr. Silver, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to be on this case.”
The juror spoke to Caproni in a meeting away from the other jurors, but with defense and prosecution lawyers, as well as two pool media reporters, present.
The man sent a note to Caproni, just as jury deliberations were beginning, at about 9:35 a.m., that read: “I no longer wish to participate as a juror in this case. I believe there is a conflict of interest.”
In the meeting, the juror said he’d been told by others who work out of his garage that Silver and the medallion owner, who was not named, “hang out in the same synagogue…that kind of stuff.”
The “very rich” owner leases out 250 taxi medallions, the juror told Caproni.
When the juror was not in the room, Caproni surmised that the juror feared that if there was a conviction, he would lose his medallion.
Caproni, along with the lawyers, ultimately decided that the juror would not be dismissed — and reassured him that he could not be retaliated against.
“I’m going to direct you to put out of your mind whatever you think you know about the connection between the medallion cab that you drive and Mr. Silver, and continue to deliberate,” the judge said. “Can you do that?”
“Well, I’ll do my best or whatever,” the juror replied. “I would really prefer not to hear any more, but if you order that, that’s what I’m going to do.”
This is the second dramatic twist in just a few days of jury deliberations. Last week, after less than two hours of deliberations, a different juror asked to be dismissed, saying her heart was pounding and she was being criticized by other jurors. Caproni also decided to keep her on the jury.
Silver is on trial for allegedly using his official power to gain illicit fees for himself in two separate bribery schemes.
Defense lawyers claim Silver did nothing illegal, and was simply earning an outside salary.
Deliberations are continuing this afternoon.
