Juror Who Charged Tampering Still Loses Sleep Over ‘Flaw’

Nearly one year after voting to convict then-San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock on campaign-violation charges, juror Stanley J. Bohensky said there still are nights “when I lose some hours of sleep” thinking about what he sees as the flawed jury deliberations that led to that conviction.

“The case isn’t over for some of us,” said Bohensky, who was thrust into the spotlight last year when he and another juror charged that a court bailiff had tampered with Hedgecock’s jury during its deliberations by discussing the case with jurors and pressing them to reach a verdict.

“I feel good about what I did because I know it was right. What I have trouble accepting is that the judge and D.A. basically ignored what we said. We were saying, ‘There’s something real wrong here,’ and they just shrugged their shoulders. As an American, that’s just unbelievable to me. It looks to me like they wanted to get Hedgecock more than they wanted to get the truth.”

The 15 minutes of Warholian fame that Bohensky, a 36-year-old radiation testing engineer from Chula Vista, achieved after he and juror Kathy Saxton-Calderwood lodged the jury-tampering charges against bailiff Al Burroughs Jr. were, on balance, generally unpleasant.

In the wake of his allegations, Bohensky was accused of, at best, having an overly active imagination or, at worst, being a liar by prosecutors and some of his fellow jurors who vigorously disputed the jury-tampering charges.

In addition, a female bailiff alleged that Bohensky made “sexually suggestive” remarks to her during the deliberations. And, in what Hedgecock attorney Michael Pancer called “a reprehensible smear campaign,” prosecutors publicized Bohensky’s 1973 felony drug conviction stemming from the sale of marijuana.

“They played really dirty hardball against me,” Bohensky said. “I began to feel like I was on trial. I guess they felt that the best defense is a good offense.”

Last December, Superior Court Judge William L. Todd Jr. dismissed the jury-tampering allegations and, in the process, questioned Bohensky’s credibility.

“That was a real eye-opener on how things really work in the legal system,” Bohensky said. “I think Judge Todd had his mind made up before hearing the evidence.”

Before the Hedgecock trial, Bohensky said he paid little attention to politics or the news. Believing that his apathy put him at a disadvantage in weighing evidence in the case, Bohensky said he now closely follows political and other news.

“I feel like I was almost taken advantage of by the district attorney’s office because I wasn’t more up to date on politics. Now, I’m no longer going to be looking the other way.”

Bohensky said he occasionally listens to Hedgecock’s radio talk-show and once, without identifying himself, made an on-air call to Hedgecock to complain about what he saw as the San Diego Union’s biased news coverage in favor of Maureen O’Connor during last spring’s mayoral election.

Although Bohensky was one of the first jurors to become convinced of Hedgecock’s guilt during last year’s deliberations, he explained that he now questions the trial’s fairness.

“Had I known then what I know now, I would have voted differently,” Bohensky said. “Believe me, I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights wishing I could relive the reading of that verdict.”