In a rare move, a Manhattan federal judge has agreed to let a jury deciding the fraud trial of five ex-staffers of Bernie Madoff resume its deliberations Friday after a two-day delay — but with one less member.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled Thursday that the trial will move forward with only 11 jurors after juror No. 6, a Westchester female teacher, became ill Tuesday afternoon, complaining of stomach problems, and had yet to recover.
The jury began deliberations Monday afternoon after hearing testimony from more than 40 witnesses and reviewing roughly 1,600 government exhibits over the past five months in what’s been one of the longest white-collar criminal trials in New York history.
Deliberations will continue with the smaller jury Friday.
Prosecutors had asked Swain to bring the jury back Friday either with 11 members or by subbing one of the alternate jurors for juror No. 6. However, adding an alternate juror would mean having to deliberate from scratch.
Defense lawyers had asked the judge to give juror No. 6 until at least Monday to see if she was healthy enough to resume deliberating, but Swain’s ruling means she can’t rejoin the jury.
On trial are Madoff’s former operations chief Daniel Bonventre, secretary Annette Bongiorno, account manager Joann Crupi and computer programmers Jerome O’Hara and George Perez.
Both Bonventre and Bongiorno testified in their own defense, while the others opted not to.
They all claim they were duped for decades, the same way thousands of Madoff’s investors were.
The jury is being asked to render a verdict on 31 separate charges, some of which apply to more than one defendant.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the scheme in 2009 and has claimed he acted alone.