Judge Sequesters Poindexter Jury : 2 Jurors Contacted by Reporters, Nearly Causing Mistrial

The judge presiding over the Iran-Contra trial of John M. Poindexter today ordered the jury sequestered after two members of the panel were contacted by the press, nearly causing a mistrial.

At a hastily called hearing, U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene angrily announced that two jurors had been contacted Monday night by women identifying themselves as reporters.

He said the attempts to contact jurors, who began deliberating Monday, might be considered an obstruction of justice.

“I’ll think about that,” Greene said. “This almost created a mistrial.”

“I have decided I will sequester the jury. I have tried to avoid that,” Greene said. “I’m very sorry to have to do this, but the irresponsible behavior of the press leaves me no choice.”

He added, “I certainly don’t want to have a mistrial.”

The reporter, identified in court as Nora Boustany, is a prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. In the courtroom, the juror who was contacted said when Boustany called, he hung up on her only to be called by her a second time.

Bob Kaiser, the newspaper’s assistant managing editor for national news, said that Boustany has reported from Lebanon for many years and that she never lived or worked in the United States until recently. She was assigned to find out how to contact the Poindexter juror after the trial, Kaiser said, and made the mistake of contacting him directly.

“She told us what happened, and we called the judge’s chambers and apologized,” Kaiser said. “No substantive questions were asked or answered.”

Kaiser said, “We’re virtually certain” the second juror was not contacted by anyone from his newspaper.

The identity of the woman who called the second juror and said she was a reporter is not known. The juror hung up before getting the caller’s name.

Greene said Boustany’s excuse of not knowing “the ground rules” was “a lame excuse” and one that would be ridiculed by the press if made by a government official.

The jury of eight women and four men will move into a hotel, Greene said. Today was the panel’s first full day of deliberations after receiving instructions from Greene on Monday.

Poindexter, 53, the last of the original Iran-Contra defendants, is the highest Reagan Administration official to stand trial in the Iran-Contra scandal. The retired Navy rear admiral is accused of obstruction of Congress, conspiracy and the destruction of official government documents.