Bong! The bell finally summoned us at almost 5 p.m., after a second long day of waiting for the Tobin jury to reach a consensus. “Please go to Courtroom 5 for the jury verdict.” Gratefully, we (five real reporters plus Betsy) hustled into the courtroom and opened up notebooks.
“Please rise for the jury.” Would their faces give anything away as they filed in? Nope–all of the twelve looked serious and all looked tired. Their deliberation had lasted almost as long as the testimony itself.
The foreperson handed the verdict to the court clerk, who read it out loud:
With respect to the first count*: Not guilty.
With respect to the second count: Guilty.
With respect to the third count: Guilty.
Defense attorney Dane Butswinkas was out of his seat almost before the clerk had finished reading. He demanded to have the jury polled, one by one, to see if the verdict was truly unanimous.
The court clerk accordingly polled the jurors, one by one. “Juror Number One, is this your verdict?” “Yes,” each juror replied.
After thanking the jurors for their service, Judge McAuliffe said that sentencing would occur on March 21, 2006. Outside in the corridor, reporters gathered around US Attorney Levchuk, who said he was pleased with the verdict and planned to use it in pressing his investigation further. Questions to Butswinkas were met with a crisp “No comment.” ABC news already has the (short) AP story plus a photo of Tobin leaving the courthouse.
* First count: Conspiracy Against Rights; 18 U.S.C. 241 (depriving citizens of their right to vote)
Second count: Conspiracy to commit telephone harassment in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 47 U.S.C. § 223 (a)(1)(D),.
Third count: Aiding and abetting telephone harassment in violation of 47 U.S.C. § 223 (a)(1)(D) and 18 U.S.C. § 2
One count of the earlier Tobin indictment was dropped. Here’s the official US DOJ press release.