Business

Juror dishes on Steinberg trial deliberation details

Most people wish they could skip jury duty. Then there’s Paul Skokandich.

The 59-year-old bookkeeper was a juror during the month-long trial of former SAC Capital moneyman Michael Steinberg. He was also the first person to show up for Steinberg’s sentencing on Friday.

The bespectacled, white-haired Skokandich waited almost three hours at Manhattan federal court so he could see the case through to conclusion, he told The Post.

“It was exciting,” said Skokandich, from Rockland County. “You have 16 different personalities on a jury.”

As a juror, Steinberg’s verdict boiled down to one question: “Did this individual have information and do something to benefit from it?”

The jury’s deliberation lasted about a day and a half. During that time, Skokandich said they requested a lot of information, from emails to charts of investments.

“We all went into the trial with an open mind,” he said. “You want to get all the details you can.”

Steinberg’s defense — that his trades were based on solid research — unraveled because his purported predictions turned out to be too accurate, Skokandich said.

“It wasn’t just good research, because the numbers were too finite, too close,” he said. “You can’t pull that information out. You’re not going to get that close to the published numbers.”

Skokandich should know. He’s worked as an accountant or a controller for companies from Holiday Inn to Primerica Financial Services.

The jury had two holdouts who misread or misunderstood the instructions, but they came around after being convinced by other jurors, he said.

He described Steinberg as having an “even appearance” during the trial. But when the guilty verdict was read, that composure fell apart: Steinberg appeared to briefly lose consciousness.

“He had a panic attack, or whatever that was,” Skokandich said.

“As a human being, you feel bad for anyone losing their freedom,” Skokandich said. “I feel bad for his family. But he knowingly did what he did.”