Jurors Robbed While Listening

[Texsox]

BALTIMORE -- After listening to testimony in a murder case, jurors returned to their jury room to find that they had become victims of a crime -- a thief had stolen their money, cell phones and car keys.

 

"They were angry, hot, livid," lawyer Warren A. Brown, who was in the courtroom on another matter. "Here they are, jurors in a murder case, and we can't even trust the court to protect their belongings from thieves. It's mind-boggling."

 

Police think it was an inside job.

 

"We believe it was an employee of the courthouse," said Detective Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman.

 

The crime occurred about 2:30 p.m. Friday when a thief used a set of keys to slip into Circuit Court Judge John N. Prevas' locked jury room, said Maj. Henry Martin, a spokesman for the Baltimore Sheriff's Department.

 

Defense lawyer Maureen O'Leary made a motion to have the case declared a mistrial, but the motion was denied.

 

"If the crime that occurred to the jurors was the same as the crime they were deliberating on that would be one thing," the judge said. "But this incident is too remote."