Dum Pendebat Filius

From the AP wire:

A judge ordered a new trial in a case in which a juror sipped vodka throughout the trial.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Geoffrey Morris said in his order that new trials may be granted only in the most extreme circumstances.

But he said “the inexcusable, disruptive behavior of this juror was so extraordinary as to render this relief appropriate.”

The case involved a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she was injured when a garbage truck ran into her car.

The jury foreman told Morris that the juror had been disruptive and uncooperative during deliberations, and eventually became so inebriated she could not participate.

After the verdict came in, Morris discovered that the clear liquid the woman had been sipping all day from a plastic water bottle was vodka.

Morris said he discovered the juror was drunk only after the jury returned its verdict.

He dismissed her from jury duty and made her husband come to the courthouse to pick her up. She was not named in the court’s order and she was not sanctioned.