Three North Jurors Ailing--but Deliberations Go On : Rich Food, Chest Colds Get Blame : 3 North Jurors Ailing, Press on With Work

A third day of deliberations in Oliver L. North’s Iran-Contra trial was disrupted today when medical help was called in to assist three members of the jury who fell ill.

A note to Judge Gerhard A. Gesell asked that a nurse be summoned to the jury room, where one juror was suffering from high blood pressure apparently as a result of rich food served at the hotel where the panel is sequestered.

At a noon hearing, Gesell said, “There is potentially a health problem with these jurors. A cold is running through the jury and two of them have chest colds.”

“None of these people are complaining that they can’t go ahead with their service,” Gesell told the lawyers. “ . . . If it approaches any kind of crisis stage--and it has not--I’ll call you in.”

There was no discussion in court of what course would be followed if any of the jurors were forced to drop out. Court rules state that if it becomes necessary to excuse a juror during deliberations, “in the discretion of the court a valid verdict may be returned by the remaining 11 jurors.”

Note From Foreman

Gesell came into the courtroom today, for the first time since the jury received the case, after receiving a note from the foreman that said: “Could you please send for nurse for Jean Johnson. Recheck blood pressure.”

Mrs. Johnson, 53, registered a blood pressure of 160-over-98 when she was checked by the courthouse nurse, Gesell said. He got the lawyers’ permission to summon her own doctor and have her examined in the presence of a U.S. marshal.

“Apparently the juror had a blood pressure problem and the blood pressure elevated, perhaps in part because her diet (while the jury is sequestered) is richer than she is accustomed to,” Gesell said.

North, the former Ronald Reagan Administration aide, was not in court today. He has been on trial since Jan. 31 on 12 criminal charges that include lying to Congress, obstructing congressional and presidential inquiries, and making personal use of funds involved in the secret effort to help the Nicaraguan Contra rebels at a time when official U.S. aid was banned.

He could be sentenced to as much as 60 years in prison and fined up to $3 million if convicted on all counts.

President Bush said today he has not discussed with anyone a possible pardon for North if he should be convicted.

Calls Speculation ‘Stupid’

Bush, commenting aboard Air Force One on his way to a speech in Chicago, said speculation about what he’ll do is “stupid” and “idiotic”--and uninformed since “I haven’t discussed it nor shared my thoughts with anybody. I don’t have any thoughts until I get the facts.”

He was responding to a question about a report in Newsweek magazine quoting sources close to him as predicting he would never pardon North.

At the hearing today, Gesell also told the lawyers that NBC News left unsigned letters at the homes of the North case jurors, inviting them to be interviewed after the trial is over.

“I think it was most inappropriate, improper conduct, quite disrespectful of the situation we are dealing with,” he said. But, he said, it is too late to do anything about it.

The NBC letters were slipped under doors at the jurors’ homes. One was discovered by a U.S. marshal who went to one of the homes to pick up a jury member’s mail.