MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A jury deliberated for a second day Wednesday in the trial of seven Minnesotans accused in a scheme to steal more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic, while FBI agents try to establish who left a bag with $120,000 in cash for a juror. Federal authorities confiscated the defendants' cellphones to search for clues and took all seven into custody on Monday before deliberations began. The trial judge also sequestered the jury after dismissing the juror who turned over the gift bag, along with another juror who reported hearing about the bribe attempt.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of “Juror #52” in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park late Sunday, the night before the case went to the jury. The juror wasn't home, so the woman handed her relative a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies, saying it was a “present” for the juror. “The woman told the relative to tell Juror #52 to say not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow,” the agent wrote.
“After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw it contained a substantial amount of cash.” The juror called police right after she got home and gave them the bag, which held stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling around $120,000. U.
S. District Judge Nancy Brasel and attorneys for both sides learned about the attempted bribe Mo.