It’s a good day to have two Raj’s in your full name, people. First Raj Rajaratnam’s lawyer, John Dowd, says the Galleon founder’s foot is “healing” after the muy mysterioso bacterial infection and emergency foot surgery that’s kept him out of court this week. And today, due to a need to undergo a medical procedure (no relation to Raj’s ailment as far as we know) juror No. 2 has been dismissed. Judge Richard Holwell had the option of accepting a verdict from eleven jurors if the defense and prosecution didn’t agree to continue deliberations with a smaller jury pool. But instead he opted to replace the juror with an alternate, starting deliberations anew and throwing out everything they agreed to in the last six days.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Lawyers said the defense in most cases would favor the addition of an alternate juror.” The more jurors there are, the greater chance they will get hung up on one of fourteen counts of conspiracy and securities fraud Rajaratnam is currently facing. A new vote also offers the opportunity to reconsider issues the other eleven have already signed off on. Considering how testy Dowd’s been recently, that probably means it’s a good thing for his client. There’s no predicting how things will go, of course, especially when the alternate juror is studying to be a minister. Either way, Raj will probably benefit from a little good will for keeping his bacterial foot a safe distance from the jury stand.
Galleon Deliberations to Start Anew After Juror Is Dismissed [WSJ]
Rajaratnam Jury Deliberations Restart With Alternate [Bloomberg]
RAJ JURY DELIBERATION FORCED TO START ALL OVER AGAIN [Clusterstock/BI]
