The latest trial in Conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretcher Whitmer The surprise came on Wednesday when a prosecutor accused a female juror of flirting with a defendant and the judge said he noticed it too.
The unnamed woman is said to be staring at 22-year-old Paul Bellar and sneaking a smile at him.
The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Bill Rollstin, told the judge that Bellar, a member of the Wolverine Watchmen, was flirting again and had shaken the jury’s hand.
That statement drew objections from Bellar’s defense attorney, who said the gesture was innocent: It was his client’s birthday and he was holding some Skittles, according to Detroit Free Press.
“I have noticed her looks. He knows. But he didn’t wink at her. He didn’t do anything to encourage her,” the attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, told the court.
“I don’t think that’s grounds for disqualifying this juror… Maybe she likes him, maybe she doesn’t. There’s no way to tell what’s on the juror’s mind. “
Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson said he noticed the juror’s “little smirk”.
“I see her looking directly at your client, and a number of times I have seen a smile on her face. It was enough to get my attention,” he said.
“I would be very attentive,” he added. “I don’t know if I want to kick her or not.”
Attorneys for Bellar’s co-defendants opposed that scenario and considered it sexist.
“What is the basis for saying that she will lie? Because she’s a woman? Because she’s young? ‘ said attorney Leonard Ballard, who represents Joe Morrison.
According to the Associated PressAttorney Kareem Johnson, who is defending Pete Musico, said other jurors laughed or laughed during the eight-day trial in state court.
“She has a duty to try the witnesses and try the defendants. She has to look back here,” Johnson said.
Bellar, Morrison, and Musico were charged with providing material support for an act of terrorism — essentially helping train militia members accused in federal court of directly conspiring to kidnap Whitmer.
Two of those men were acquitted, and the case against the other two initially ended in stalemate, but they were sentenced to retrial.
There are jury issues in the retrial, as well as: the name of a juror’s daughter-in-law appeared in the first trial with an image of a woman smoking weed with one of the defendants, and defense attorneys have a tip that another juror had already decided how they would vote even before they were selected to be on the panel.
