A member of the jury in the trial of the three men accused of the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been dismissed after being accused of flirting with one of the defendants.
The female juror was dismissed after one of the prosecutors in the case complained that she has been communicating with defendant Paul Bellar by smiling and through eye contact.
“Since the start of the trial... there’s been non-verbal communication between one of the jurors — a female — and Mr Bellar,” said attorney William Rollstin. “The communication has been in the form of eye contact [and] smiling at each other.”
“|It didn’t just happen on one day — it happened over multiple days,” Judge Thomas Wilson told local media, adding: “I decided it’s safer to err on the side of caution.”
Judge Wilson said he too had noticed the interactions at different points during testimony, including when she gave the defendant a “small smirk”.
Mr Rollstin said he had seen Mr Bellar clench his fists and shake them in an affirmative way in response to the woman.
Andrew Kirkpatrick, Mr Bellar’s attorney, said this was a misinterpretation, and that Bellar shook his fists in excitement because Kirkpatrick had offered him a packet of Skittles candy for his birthday.
There are alternate jurors available to replace the woman on the panel.
Mr Bellar, Joseph Morrison, and Pete Musico are accused of three crimes, including providing material support for terrorist acts, which carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
In an affidavit regarding the allegations against Mr Bellar, Brian Russell, a detective sergeant with the Michigan Department of State Police, states that the accused “provided plans for tactical maneuvers at training, coded language for covert communication, hosted meetings at his residence, provided ammunition, and coordinated logistics for training” of the Wolverine Watchmen militia group who planned to kidnap Governor Whitmer during the
The three men have pleaded not guilty, saying an FBI informant entrapped them.
In August, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr were convicted of plotting to seize the governor at her vacation home.
