Deliberations

GREENBELT -- A federal jury ended its fourth day of deliberations yesterday in the corruption trial of a former Prince George's County school superintendent without reaching a verdict and was ordered by a judge to return Monday to try again. The jury hearing the case against Andre J. Hornsby, accused of awarding large school contracts to his lover and a business associate in exchange for kickbacks, had sent a note to U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in midafternoon stating it was having trouble arriving at a verdict.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury went home yesterday without reaching a verdict in the shooting of New York ballet dancer Bransford Pace. It was the second day of deliberations.Jurors will resume deliberations Tuesday. Courts are closed Monday in observance of Columbus Day. The defendant, John C. Rogers, 31, of the 600 block of Pitcher St., could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery and several other charges.Jurors told Baltimore Circuit Judge Alfred Nance twice yesterday that they couldn't reach a unanimous decision.

IN THIS dreary federal courtroom yesterday sat the lady friend of George A. Dangerfield Jr. He is the famously accused narcotics trafficker and slumlord. She is the true believer that he is neither. Somewhere, as a jury gathered to decide Dangerfield's fate, reality beckoned."This is my shield," the lady friend said. She held up a worn copy of her Bible. She is 26 years old and a vision of religious innocence. As she endured the jury's deliberations -- which lasted roughly 90 minutes and ended in pronouncement of Dangerfield's guilt -- the young lady could be seen as one of those blinded by wondrous surface illusions in a city that has given ground each day to its scavengers.

SEATTLE -- A federal appeals court will hear arguments today that the jury that awarded more than $5 billion in damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill was tainted by a bailiff who pulled out his gun and joked about putting a holdout juror "out of her misery."The same juror, who attempted suicide three weeks after the verdict, alleged she was threatened by other jurors and by the bailiff, who was forced to resign from the U.S. Marshals Service after admitting he had offered his gun and a bullet to one of the jurors and had improperly socialized with the jury.

WASHINGTON -- Although they are both strong political supporters of President Clinton, Maryland's two Democratic senators split sharply yesterday on whether the Senate should open the doors during its debate on a motion to dismiss the impeachment charges.The full Senate rarely meets in private, but the arcane rules guiding an impeachment trial require a two-thirds majority vote to allow the public to hear its debate on the motion for dismissal made by Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate hears final arguments today in President Clinton's impeachment trial, amid fresh signs of trouble for proponents of a toughly worded measure condemning Clinton for his behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.A group of Democratic and Republican senators is eager to have a Senate vote on a resolution censuring the president this week, immediately after his expected acquittal on impeachment charges. But chances appear to be fading for quick action.One leading opponent of the idea, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, warns that he will do everything he can to block a censure vote after the trial ends.

WASHINGTON -- Suspenseful it was not. And yet, when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist called for the verdict in President Clinton's impeachment trial, he suddenly placed the weight of history on 100 sets of shoulders in the hushed Senate chamber."

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury acquitted a man yesterday who had been accused of participating in the robbery and shooting last year of a ballet dancer.Defendant John C. Rogers faced life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges, conspiracy to commit murder and armed robbery. After spending 314 days in the Baltimore jail, he was awaiting release last night.Rogers was charged in the robbery Nov. 27 that left New York ballet dancer James Bransford Pace paralyzed from the chest down.

An Anne Arundel County jury began deliberations yesterday in the weeklong trial of Richard W. Brooks on murder charges in the killing of a Pasadena bodybuilder in 1996.The jury received the case at 12: 15 p.m., and no verdict had been received by late in the day, said Kristin Riggin, a spokeswoman for the county state's attorney's office.Brooks, 34, who had no fixed address, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of James F. Holtgreve, 32, whose body was found lying in a pool of blood Dec. 23, 1996, at his secluded home in the 700 block of Seaborne Court.

An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court jury will resume deliberating today whether John Thomas Logan is guilty in the slaying of an acquaintance outside a grocery store in Annapolis' Eastport community.Logan, 22, of the 1000 block of Monroe St., is charged with first-degree murder and two handgun violations in the death Jan. 22 of Wayne Dwight Addison, 21, of the 100 block of Bright-water Drive.The charges could bring a sentence of life in prison.Logan, who testified this week that he shot Addison in self-defense, argued that Addison had previously made so many threats against him, including pulling a gun on him, that he feared for his life.

Organizers: Bruce Springsteen to play 1st Mariner Arena Rock legend Bruce Springsteen will perform at 1st Mariner Arena Nov. 20, organizers announced Tuesday. This appears to be Springsteen's first Baltimore show since he opened for Chicago at the Baltimore Civic Center in June 1973. Officials at 1st Mariner Arena had heard nothing about the show, which comes near the end of Springsteen's 31-date tour. Tickets for the show will go on sale Sept. 25, according to a news release sent out from Shore Fire Media, Springsteen's publicity company.

GREENBELT -- The public corruption trial of Andre J. Hornsby ended yesterday without a verdict after jurors remained deadlocked in the case against the former Prince George's County schools chief. Without a conviction or acquittal on any count, the mis- trial declared by the presiding judge in U.S. District Court marked a high-profile setback for federal prosecutors who charged Hornsby more than a year ago with accepting kickbacks from an educational software saleswoman. Questions about the financial arrangement between Hornsby, 54, and his then-girlfriend Sienna Owens first came to light in a series of 2004 articles in The Sun. The U.S. attorney's office for Maryland immediately pledged to retry the case, while Hornsby's defense lawyer vowed that his client would continue fighting every element of the 16-count criminal indictment against him. "I put it into God's hands," Hornsby, 54, said of the future of the case outside the courthouse late yesterday afternoon.

GREENBELT -- A federal jury ended its fourth day of deliberations yesterday in the corruption trial of a former Prince George's County school superintendent without reaching a verdict and was ordered by a judge to return Monday to try again. The jury hearing the case against Andre J. Hornsby, accused of awarding large school contracts to his lover and a business associate in exchange for kickbacks, had sent a note to U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in midafternoon stating it was having trouble arriving at a verdict.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals ordered a new trial yesterday in the case of a woman who won a multimillion-dollar malpractice judgment against a doctor who she said misdiagnosed her terminal cancer. The three-judge appellate panel found that a Baltimore Circuit Court judge had improperly replaced two members of the six-person jury with alternate jurors in the midst of the jury's deliberations. "We understand the trial court's interest in averting a mistrial due to a hung jury after a long and complex trial," wrote Court of Special Appeals Judge Deborah S. Eyler.

A military judge declined yesterday to grant a new trial to a former Navy football player who was convicted of sexual assault after a juror said his peers on the seven-member panel of Naval Academy officers had a "lack of impartiality" during deliberations. Maj. Robb Mansfield, an electrical engineering instructor, testified in a hearing at the Washington Navy Yard yesterday that he came forward just two days after the conclusion of Kenny Ray Morrison's trial last month with concerns about "the method in which we attacked, or undertook the deliberations."

His hands shaking as he clutched a stack of wrinkled paper and a Bible, Jamaal K. Abeokuto told the jurors asked to decide whether he should be executed for killing his girlfriend's young daughter that he's sorry, but added that he's not sure why he committed the crime. "Many of you may have asked, `Well, if you know so much about Christianity, how could you do such a thing?'" Abeokuto said yesterday. "The true answer to that is I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out to this day. It's beyond me."

An Anne Arundel County jury convicted a Glen Burnie man yesterday of what prosecutors called the "execution" of a longtime acquaintance to whom he owed money for a car. Todd Alan Poorman, 28, will have to serve at least five years in prison on handgun violations and faces up to another 10 years for manslaughter in the Nov. 4, 2005 fatal shooting of Michael Leo Rousseaux, 28, of Severna Park. Assistant State's Attorney Fred Paone contended that Rousseaux went to Poorman's townhouse, where the two began arguing over several thousand dollars Poorman might have owed him for a Lincoln Navigator.

WASHINGTON -- A juror was dismissed yesterday from the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, but the judge allowed the panel to continue deliberations with 11 members. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton discharged the juror after she acknowledged coming in contact with information about the perjury and obstruction case over the weekend when court was not in session. Walton did not detail the nature or extent of the contacts, which he said were brought to his attention by the jury's foreperson.

WASHINGTON -- After a month of testimony and a day of impassioned debate by the lawyers, a federal jury began considering the perjury case yesterday against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton instructed the eight-woman, four-man panel on the law underlying the five-count indictment against Libby, and sent them off to begin deliberations. Walton urged the panel to use its "common-sense experience" in determining whether Libby was guilty of an illegal cover-up or of merely having a bad memory.

They didn't want to end up like the first jury. These jurors were confident that they would reach a verdict in the trial of Policarpio Espinoza and Adan Canela, the two men accused of killing three young relatives. And yesterday, just as Day 4 of deliberations began, they did. Twelve men and women, all Baltimore residents but as varied as a 20-year-old student and a 72-year-old retired nurse, have watched their summer slip away in the chilled but stale air of a second-floor courtroom in Courthouse East.