Law and Disorder

surreal life: Among those hanging around the corruption trial is Bruce Wilson, who, though he claims psychic abilities, has no verdict prediction.
Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Twelve angry men and women toil at Sixth and Market streets on Jury Appreciation Day.

by Morris Bracy IV

Bruce Wilson claims he has personal relationships with George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He also says he has mystical insights into the future. So it makes perfect sense that Wilson has spent a great deal of time in and around Courtroom 3A of the federal courthouse at Sixth and Market streets lately.

He's embedded himself at the city's latest corruption trial, a position that puts him in close proximity to the slew of reporters who've encamped there as well, waiting for a verdict. Why does he come to wait around the courthouse every day, dressed like he has some official business there?

"Because the real reason for this trial," he says, "is because I went to the White House to predict 9/11." That notwithstanding, even Wilson can't see how this increasingly bizarre case will end. "If I see it, I will tell you."

Don Alexander, a lawyer observing the scene on behalf of an interested client, may describe the scene there as "moments of the surreal interrupting long spans of incredible boredom." But Wilson, dubbed "Bruce Almighty" and "Bruce the Prophet" by some there, finds himself in the middle of an unusual judicial scene that turned even crazier in the past week.

Last Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson removed Juror 11, Margaret W. Szewczyk, for biases he concluded she had against the FBI. Headlines and controversies aside, the local attorney who represented Ron White — until the would-be defendant died last year — says Baylson's move was unusual.

"Removing a juror during deliberations is an extraordinary act that's only permitted under the most extraordinary circumstances," says Chris Warren. "You literally have to prove that the juror refuses to deliberate [and/or] has preconceived biases or sympathies that [he or she] cannot and will not free themselves of."

Adds Warren, "The removal of the juror increases the likelihood of conviction on some counts," but bolsters the chance of a successful appeal.

In a memorandum written to support his decision, Baylson wrote that several jurors complained that Szewczyk "was biased against the government and had made statements indicating that she was unlikely to believe FBI agents because of their occupation." Through interviews that Baylson conducted with each juror (the transcripts of which will not be released until after deliberations), he concluded that Szewczyk was "not credible." He then gave the remaining jurors and Szewczyk's replacement further instructions that seemed to contradict human nature.

"You must not speculate why Juror 11 was removed. You've got to start fresh in looking at the evidence and charges," he said, adding that "the idea is to try to agree as opposed to try to disagree [unless] you can't agree based on a good faith position based on the law." He also encouraged the jurors to take up longer hours.

Defense attorneys took turns slamming Baylson's perceived motives and, at some points, his character. William Spade, counsel for former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, claimed the judge had "sided with one faction of the jury [against] a minority faction."

"Words fail me to speak of what you've done," he added, calling Baylson "the 5th prosecutor" and "the Ministry of Truth" from George Orwell's 1984.

Commerce Bank executive Stephen Umbrell's lawyer, Lawrence S. Lustberg, said the decision marked a "tragic day to the American system of justice."

Anthony Chambers, counsel for Detroit-based businessman La-Van Hawkins, filed a motion for a mistrial Friday. It was based on the removal of the juror as well as concerns that the lack of black presence on the jury would have an adverse effect on his African-American client. (The jury, as it stands, comprises two blacks and ten whites).

"I saw two jurors smile and one juror laugh," Chambers claimed, hypothesizing that the decision sent a "hurry up and get a verdict" message.

With all that scrutiny turned toward the 12 people who'll render the corruption decision, it's only fitting that Tuesday marked the local celebration of Juror Appreciation Week. Decorating the jurors' waiting room at the Criminal Justice Center, at 13th and Filbert, with balloons, a group including Mayor Street, representatives from the First Judicial District and Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, Villanova University men's basketball coach Jay Wright, and several judges lauded the prospective decisionmakers. In light of all that's been going on several blocks away, even Bruce Wilson would have raised an eyebrow when Court of Common Pleas Administrative Judge James J. Fitzgerald addressed the crowd.

"If you are selected to serve as a juror," he said, "I can assure you it will be a positive experience you will remember for the rest of your life."