LOCAL : McMartin Juror’s Mystery Illness Forces Trial Recess Until Sept. 11
The troubled McMartin Preschool molestation trial was recessed today until Sept. 11 while doctors try to diagnose a mysterious illness which has hospitalized a juror.
“It’s obviously a serious matter,” said Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, who decided to wait and see if the juror can be cured quickly and return to the trial, now in its third year.
He said one of the conditions the juror is suffering from is shingles, “but that is not the condition that caused him to be hospitalized.” He did not describe the man’s symptoms but said pathology reports so far have failed to diagnose the cause.
Pounders told the remaining jurors that if the absent member of the panel is unable to return, the last alternate will replace him.
“If we’re down to the final 12, we’re in desperate straits,” he said.
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