PHILADELPHIA — A judge has declared a mistrial in the federal bribery case of Philadelphia Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, Dawn Chavous, after jurors were unable to reach a verdict after roughly 25 hours of deliberations.
“I do have a concern that there’s a manifest necessity for a mistrial,” U.S. District Judge Gerald A McHugh said Tuesday. “The jury has reached a deadlock and sending them back to deliberate any further may be coercive.”
The council member and his wife — their faces behind masks — showed little reaction as the judge announced his decision. Moments earlier, they shared a quiet moment at the defense table in close conversation.
The jury of eight men and four women sent their final note to McHugh just after 4 p.m.
“We are unable to unanimously come to agreement,” it read. “Individuals from both sides do not believe that any additional evidence will change their minds.”
Huddling in private conversation with attorneys for both sides, the judge called the jury foreperson back to his chambers before bringing out the entire panel.
Prosecutors have not immediately said whether they will seek to retry Johnson, his wife, Dawn Chavous, and two nonprofit executives accused of providing them with payoffs, on the two counts of honest services fraud each of them faces.
Their co-defendants — Rahim Islam and Shaheid Dawan — were set to face trial on a separate set of charges immediately after the verdict on the bribery scheme involving Johnson and Chavous. However, McHugh dismissed the jury, opting to try that case with another panel at a later time.
