THE MENENDEZ TRIAL: Behind Closed Doors
NEWARK – Jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial spent their third day of deliberations entirely behind closed doors, asking no questions of the judge and only agreeing to leave one hour early to avoid Newark rush hour traffic.
And that suits the defendant in this case just fine.
“The jury has a lot to go through,” Menendez said as he left court this afternoon. “So I understand that they are being methodical…after two and-a-half years of living through this odyssey, waiting for the jury to do what they think is right is not something I worry about.”
Most attorneys and even some legal textbooks posit that the longer a jury deliberates, the better things are looking for the defendant. Menendez believes the law is on his side, and seemed to have plenty of patience left.
“And I have every expectation that, based upon all of the facts that have been presented at this trial, if they listen to the law and the facts, I am convinced we will be exonerated, and that’s worth waiting for,” the senator said.
Menendez spent the day working at his Newark office, according to his spokesman, and arrived at the courthouse around 3:15 p.m. to see the jurors dismissed for the day by Judge William Walls. If the looming possibility of a verdict was weighing on him, it did not show when he entered Walls’ courtroom and surprised the sketch artist.
“Looks better than I am,” Menenedez said, looking over the artist’s shoulder at his likeness on her sketch pad. “Have to purchase that.”
Even Menendez’s co-defendant Dr. Salomon Melgen seemed in better spirits than usual, grinning as he was brought into the courtroom through a side door by deputy U.S. marshals. Melgen has been in federal custody throughout the trial.
Jurors deliberated until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, but something must have gone wrong on their rides home that day. Today, they insisted on leaving at 3:30, citing concerns with traffic.
It was the second full day of deliberations, and unlike yesterday it passed without a question emanating from the jury room.
Tuesday’s much-ridiculed question asked what defense attorney Abbe Lowell said during his closing argument about the duties of a senator. In spite of the snickering from the gallery on a query that seemed so basic, the transcript of Lowell’s remarks shows the jurors could be discussing the venue of the case, or even the definition of “official act” Menendez performed. Both will be essential parts of the jury’s verdict on the false statements charge and the bribery offenses.
Lowell said prosecutors were accusing Menendez of performing “official acts that he would not otherwise take.” The trial also featured more than a little testimony about what a New Jersey senator was doing helping out a Florida eye doctor.
“So, all the evidence confirmed that Senator Menendez asserted his ability but never his power to act as a legislator,” Lowell said in the closing, according to the transcript. “Every government and defense witness confirmed what I said to you when we met, that he could have submitted a piece of legislation to deal with the issue of (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) reimbursement being contradictory.”
Deliberations will are scheduled to start again at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, but without a verdict by the end of the day the jury faces a reset that will reboot the whole process. The juror with the pre-planned vacation will be excused at the end of the day if there is no verdict, and an alternate will join the jury to start their deliberations anew Monday. Court is closed Friday for the federal holiday of Veteran’s Day.
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