3 North Jurors Ailing but All Stay on Duty

Jury deliberations in the trial of former White House aide Oliver L. North were briefly interrupted Monday by the illness of a juror who suffers from high blood pressure, but the problem was not seen as threatening continuation of the proceedings.

In response to a note from the jury, U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell gave permission for Jean Johnson, 53, to be examined by a doctor in the presence of a federal marshal.

Johnson, who initially was examined by a nurse summoned to the jury room, had a blood pressure reading of 160 over 98, considered high but not a severe or imminent risk to health, officials said.

Gesell said that two other jurors were suffering from colds, but he added: “None of these people are complaining they can’t go forward.” The panel deliberated through the afternoon before being excused for the day.

Attorneys said that if a juror had to be removed for medical reasons, the remaining 11 members could still return a verdict. Court rules allow for this if “in the discretion of the court, a valid verdict may be returned . . . “

The defense could demand a mistrial, however, and loss of a juror could become grounds for an appeal, legal sources said.

Neither prosecution nor defense in the North trial would make an immediate comment.

In a brief proceeding in open court, Gesell told the lawyers: “Apparently the juror had a blood pressure problem and the blood pressure elevated, perhaps in part because her diet (during sequestration) is richer than she is accustomed to.”

In another development related to the Iran-Contra affair, a grand jury charged Joseph F. Fernandez, former CIA station chief in Costa Rica, with lying under oath to executive branch officials to obstruct investigations of the scandal.

The indictment was returned in suburban Alexandria, Va., to correct the legal venue of proceedings against him. Prosecutors last fall had sought dismissal of an earlier indictment returned in Washington after a federal judge said that the case should have been brought in northern Virginia, where the CIA is based and Fernandez allegedly committed most of the offenses.

The new, four-count indictment says that Fernandez made false statements to the CIA inspector general’s office and to the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) about covert efforts to arm the Nicaraguan rebels during the 1984-86 period when U.S. law prohibited such aid.