Judge to Question Camarena Jurors on Outside Influences : Trial: Rafeedie orders a hearing into one panelist’s charges of misconduct. The case led to four convictions related to 1985 murder of U.S. drug agent.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday ordered a hearing into alleged misconduct during jury deliberations for four men accused in the 1985 kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie scheduled a hearing for Nov. 5 to determine if the deliberations had been tainted by outside influences.

Rafeedie said the jurors definitely had been exposed to a July 27 article in The Times about one of the verdicts in the case, but he said it was uncertain what else they had read or seen or heard. All four defendants ultimately were convicted.

“I believe it is necessary to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine the precise nature of any extraneous information that reached the jury,” Rafeedie said.

In August, defense lawyers asked Rafeedie to order a new trial based on a formal declaration by juror William Parris that other jurors had been exposed to news reports containing information that had not been introduced into evidence.

Parris alleged that jurors had frequently ignored the judge’s instructions to avoid news accounts of the trial. He said the jurors had discussed at length a news account that included criticisms of their first verdict.

He also said a federal marshal, who served as a jury bailiff, had urged the panel to return a quick verdict on one defendant.

Federal prosecutors said in a written response, however, that Parris’ statements were not credible because the juror earlier had told the judge that the verdicts had not been influenced by news reports. Prosecutors also asserted that Parris might hold a grudge against some of the other jurors because of disputes during deliberations.

Last summer, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, Ruben Zuno Arce and Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez were convicted of conspiracy, kidnaping and violent crimes in aid of racketeering stemming from the February, 1985, abduction and murder of Camarena, an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in Guadalajara.

Javier Vasquez Velasco was convicted of violent crimes in aid of racketeering in the murders on Jan. 30, 1985, of two men in Guadalajara who had been mistaken for DEA agents. Sentencings of the four defendants have been delayed because of the mistrial motion.

The judge ordered attorneys not to speak to jurors or news reporters before next month’s hearing. The session might be held behind closed doors, outside the presence of the news media, “to protect the jurors from a circus atmosphere,” Rafeedie said.

Rafeedie said he would question the jurors but would take suggested questions from the attorneys. He said he would ask the jurors about several topics that Parris said the jurors had discussed:

* News reports regarding criticisms by defense lawyers of the jury’s verdict on Matta, the first defendant convicted.

* News reports that Matta had been sentenced to life in prison on a prior drug conviction and been characterized as a narcotics “kingpin.”

* The kidnaping of a Mexican doctor, a suspect in the Camarena murder, by men working with the DEA.

* Allegations of corruption in the current Mexican government.

* The convictions of three men in a 1988 trial in the Camarena case.

If Rafeedie concludes that the jurors had been subjected to improper outside influences during deliberations, that could necessitate a new trial for one or more of the defendants.

He also said he would ask Peggy Dolan, who replaced Parris as jury foreman during deliberations, whether she had said before the trial that she believed the defendants were guilty. Parris had alleged that Dolan made such a statement before they were sworn in as jurors.

Rafeedie said he would order a new trial if he concludes that the information considered by the jury “had prejudiced (a) defendant to the extent that he has not received a fair trial.”