The day a trial ends and jury deliberations are set to begin isn't a good time to let the judge know that almost the entire jury has been sleeping throughout the trial.
That's what the Palm Beach Post reports happened today, as jurors were about to receive deliberating instructions in the Buck Wild gang conspiracy and
racketeering trial -- in which five men are on trial for allegedly being linked to a handful of shootings and murders.
As the two-month trial had just come to an end, the napping epidemic was brought up to Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes today.
"Kastrenakes said he became increasingly concerned as the juror slept through
parts of the case," the paper says. "As [a defendant's] defense attorney Gregg Lerman delivered
his closing arguments in the case Monday, the juror snored audibly and had
to be awakened."
The juror was dismissed from the trial by Kastrenakes, which brought up admissions from other jurors that they'd been sleeping too.
All but two members of the panel admitted they had fallen asleep at some point during the trial.
The rest of the members are off the hook for sleeping, as the Post reports the dismissed juror was replaced by an alternative, and the deliberation instructions were delivered.
This isn't the first time the court has had to deal with juror oddities during the trial -- one juror was already dismissed, and another four attempted to bail on jury duty in letters to Kastrenakes.
A juror who asked a coworker if he was related to a member of the Buck Wild gang was dismissed.
Another wrote a letter saying she heard her coworkers talking about a mutual acquaintance being related to one of the defendants. Two said their employers wouldn't pay them throughout the trial, and the last decided to let the judge know she was bipolar and living in an assisted-living facility.
A worthy appeal may be in order if the defendants are convicted.
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