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deliberations.” Maxwell Reply Br. at 8. This argument is wrong, as “the ultimate purpose of the
[requested] post-trial evidentiary hearing is to set aside a jury verdict.” Ventura, 2014 WL
259655, at *3. And “there is no discernible reason to apply a different general standard to new
trial motions based on juror misconduct than to those premised on any other reason.” United
States v. Guzman Loera, No. 09-CR-0466 (BMC), 2019 WL 2869081, at *5 n.5 (E.D.N.Y. July
3, 2019), aff'd, 24 F.4th 144 (2d Cir. 2022). “[E]ven though there are additional
considerations . . . when ruling on an evidentiary hearing and new trial motion premised upon
allegations of juror misconduct, these are the overarching legal standards applicable to all Rule
33 motions, including when juror misconduct is at issue.” Jd.
If a hearing is held, “its scope should be limited to only what is absolutely necessary to
determine the facts with precision.” Janniello, 866 F.2d at 544. “Therefore, in the course of a
post-verdict inquiry ..., when and if it becomes apparent that the above-described reasonable
grounds to suspect prejudicial jury impropriety do not exist, the inquiry should end.” Moon, 718
F.2d at 1234. The Court has discretion to structure the hearing and to determine what testimony
is needed. Janniello, 866 F.2d at 544.
B. The scope of the hearing
The Court will conduct an evidentiary hearing on whether Juror 50 provided false
answers on the questionnaire, the explanation for those answers, and how Juror 50 would have
responded to follow-up questions if accurate answers had been provided. The Government
acknowledges that Juror 50’s answer to Question 48 satisfies the demanding standard for an
evidentiary hearing under McDonough. Gov. Br. at 33. The Court agrees. Question 48 asked
jurors:
Have you or a friend or family member ever been the victim of sexual
harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault? (This includes actual or attempted
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00009548.jpg |
| File Size | 696.2 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 93.3% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,027 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:47:53.430249 |