26 Aug 2013
When then Houston police officer Drew Ryser was videotaped in 2010 beating a teenage burglary suspect, most people assumed the officer would be fired, charged and convicted, and that would be then end of it. In fact, Ryser is no longer an officer, and in June of this year he was convicted, after ten hours of jury deliberation, of “official oppression” and sentenced to two years of probation. Last month he filed for a new trial, based, the papers say, on juror misconduct.
An interesting aspect of this case is that you don’t often hear about a charge of official oppression. Sounds like something that might have happened in South Africa during apartheid. In truth, it’s a class A misdemeanor defined in section 39.03 of the Texas Penal Code, and consists, among other things, of a public servant, acting in that capacity, intentionally mistreating a person.
If you were on the jury, you might wonder what they mean when talk about “mistreatment.” Well, if the papers filed on behalf of Ryser are accurate, that’s exactly what was on the mind of the jury foreman. She is accused of going home and researching the case online, including the meaning of the word “mistreatment,” and sharing the results with the other members of the jury. The defense position is that this effectively allowed information into the jury room that was not presented and admitted into evidence at the trial. The defense also says the foreman told the other jurors that Ryser has a job and has moved on with his life. Finally, and this may turn out to be crucial, two of the jurors have signed affidavits that the information they received from the foreman influenced their decision to convict Ryser.
Juror misconduct issues that involve the deliberation process itself are often difficult ones, but they are seldom uninteresting. And cases of this sort can be won. Just ask John Goodman, the “polo magnate” who was awarded a new trial after being convicted of DUI manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was granted a new trial in May after a juror was accused of lying in order to get a seat on the jury.
We’ll keep an eye out for developments in the Ryser case.
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