ALBANY – A court officer’s inappropriate comment to a deliberating juror requires reversing a drug conviction, a judge has held, even though a Queens defense attorney, in a strategic dice roll, had refused an offer of a mistrial.
Defense attorney Dietrich Epperson said in an interview that he suspected that at least one juror was outraged at the officer’s comment, and he guessed the panel would either acquit his client or hang. His hunch was wrong, but his legal research was right, according to Queens Supreme Court Justice Stephen Knopf (See Profile).
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