The judge in the CIA-leak trial dismissed a female juror Monday but asked the 11 remaining jurors to continue deliberations.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said the woman, in her 70s, did not intentionally come into contact with information about the high-profile trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, but what she saw was enough to send her home.
Walton worried that other jurors may have been tainted and interviewed them behind closed doors.
Walton rejected Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s plea to replace the woman with one of the two alternates and to restart the deliberations. Walton said he didn’t want to waste two and a half days of discussions, and instead agreed with defense attorney Theodore Wells, allowing the 11 jurors to continue where they left off.
Walton reminded the jurors to avoid any media coverage about the case. There are now seven women and four men on the jury. They finished the day without a decision.
Libby, one of Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aides, is accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
The dismissed woman is an art history expert and scholar who formerly served as a curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was also the only juror who did not wear a red T-shirt as part of the jury’s Valentine’s Day greeting to the court.
Information from the Associated Press was used in the story.
