(one of these men is on trial for something or other)
The New York Times’ Juliet Macur reports the judge presiding over Roger Clemens’ trial on federal perjury charges has warned both attorneys for both sides they’re boring the shit out of the jury. If only they’d kept the IRS staffer in the pool, who knows what kind of sparks would be flying.
“Those folk are fed up because they see their time being wasted,” the judge, Reggie Walton of United States District Court, said to the lawyers before the jury entered the courtroom.
He said jurors were so antsy that they had begun discussing the case, which they were told not to do. He said he learned about the discussions when a juror asked his law clerk when the jury would be told about the charges against Clemens because some jurors were confused about what Clemens was accused of.
Walton said he knew why they broke the rules: “Because, they’re bored!” He told both sides to stop asking unnecessary questions and stop showing needless photographs.
Brian McNamee, the government’s star witness, could have spurred jurors out of their malaise if he testified Tuesday, as the government said he would. But he did not; prosecutors pushed his testimony to later in the week.