Pedro jury knuckles down after scolding

By MITCHEL MADDUX and DAN MANGAN

Last Updated: 7:01 AM, May 4, 2012

Posted: 1:44 AM, May 4, 2012

Back to work!
Deliberating jurors in the embezzlement trial of former Bronx political powerhouse Pedro Espada Jr. yesterday reviewed a slew of evidence after the judge admonished at least one of them to keep an open mind.
“You cannot say, ‘I’m not going to deliberate,’ ” Brooklyn federal court Judge Frederic Block told the 12 jurors, a day after receiving a note saying that one of the panelists had “refused to be open to deliberations.”
“No one said it would be easy,” Block told the jurors, who will decide whether to convict the ex-state senator and his son of looting the Bronx-based, taxpayer-funded Soundview Healthcare Network of $500,000 by having the nonprofit pay their personal expenses.

“Discuss [the evidence] with an open mind, discuss with each other,” the judge said.
Shortly afterward, jurors began issuing a series of notes suggesting that at least some of them want to do just that.
After asking the judge if they can use highlight markers on the evidence — they can — jurors asked to review testimony of Soundview’s former personnel director and evidence that suggests the Espadas diverted rent money owed Soundview to a cleaning company they controlled.
“The jury is obviously revisiting the entire case here, step by step, piece by piece,” a pleased Block told lawyers.

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