N.Y. Trial Goes on Despite Juror’s Offer to Sell Story

The judge in the Howard Beach racial attack case denied defense motions for a mistrial today following a report that the jury forewoman, a paralegal whose father is a Broadway producer, offered to sell her trial diary to three newspapers.

Jurors continued deliberating for the 12th day in the trial of four white teen-agers charged with causing the death of a black man a year ago.

State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Demakos said the report in the Daily News on the forewoman’s trial diary was hearsay and insufficient grounds for a mistrial, defense attorneys said.

Editors of all three newspapers said they had been offered Nina Krauss’ juror’s-eye-view of the case by Mark Friedman, a field producer for WNYW-TV, who said she had authorized him to act on her behalf. He was suspended by the station today.

Friedman told the Daily News that he had received bids of $7,500 and $10,000 from the New York Post and New York Newsday, respectively. But editors for all three papers denied that they made any offer.

‘Terrible, Terrible Thing’

“If she has a monetary interest in the result of this trial, it’s a terrible, terrible thing,” defense attorney Gabriel Leone said.

Another defense lawyer, Bryan Levinson, said he thought Krauss may be holding up the deliberations while she persuades other jurors to reach a verdict she wants as an ending to her story about the case.

Special state prosecutor Charles J. Hynes refused to comment. Defense lawyers said he took no position at a closed-door conference with Demakos.

Four white teens have been charged with chasing Michael Griffith, 23, to his death on a highway in Howard Beach on Dec. 20, 1986.

Griffith was one of three black men attacked by a white mob wielding tree limbs and a baseball bat after the victims’ car broke down on the outskirts of the predominantly white neighborhood.

Jon Lester, 18, and Scott Kern, 18, were charged with second-degree murder in Griffith’s death. Michael Pirone, 18, and Jason Ladone, 17, were charged with second-degree manslaughter. All four also face lesser charges in the case.

Disobedience Planned

Meanwhile, black activists pressed ahead today with plans for “massive civil disobedience” to protest racial violence in New York despite a restraining order obtained by the city to stop them. They compared the situation to apartheid in South Africa and invoked memories of the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott.