US Federal Court Refuses Request to Dig into Juror’s Cellphone

The cellphone and other electronic devices of “Juror X,” whose social-media posts during a high-profile federal case created controversy, will not be subjected to forensic examination, a federal appeals court ruled.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, refused to issue an order allowing a probe of the juror’s devices in the case of  Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati city councilman who was convicted of two federal corruption-related charges in July.

However, one of the judges opined that the Sept. 23 ruling goes too far, opining that the decision should have been tailored more narrowly to Sittenfeld’s case. Instead, the 25-page document (pdf) was issued as a “sweeping opinion” affecting cases throughout the four-state region that the court covers: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan.

Such controversies over alleged juror misconduct are expected to surface more frequently, experts said, given the near-universal use of electronic devices and difficulty in policing jurors’ use of them during trials.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, has ruled on a case of alleged juror misconduct involving cellphone use during the trial of a former Cincinnati city councilman. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals) Courts’ Authority Over Jurors is Limited

While courts possess “inherent authority” to question jurors about possible misconduct, that authority is limited, wrote Alice Batchelder, a senior U.S. circuit judge.

Courts “cannot search jurors’ personal devices and steamroll their Fourth Amendment rights in the process,” Batchelder wrote. That amendment protects U.S. citizens against the government’s “unreasonable” searches and seizures.

Batchelder noted that she and her colleagues, as well as lawyers in the case, were unable to locate any legal case that analyzed “any authority that would empower a court to order a juror to preserve her electronic communications,