Juror Sentenced to 5 Months in Jail : Courts: Huntington Beach man offered defendant Michael Goland his choice of verdicts, allegedly to take advantage of real estate connections.

A Huntington Beach man who served as a juror in the election fraud trial of businessman Michael Goland was sentenced in federal court Monday to five months in prison for offering the defendant his choice of verdicts.

Barry Kuhnke, 33, also was sentenced to five months in a halfway house and two years’ probation. He was ordered to report to prison by Nov. 19.

Kuhnke pleaded guilty to passing a note to Goland during jury deliberations in Goland’s trial, telling him he could arrange for one of two verdicts in the case, and wanted to know which outcome he preferred.

Goland was convicted in May of making an illegal $120,000 campaign contribution to a minor candidate as part of an attempt to manipulate the 1986 U.S. Senate race into a victory for Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif). He was sentenced to three months in jail and 1,000 hours of community service.

At Monday’s sentencing, Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen Mansfield asked the judge to treat Kuhnke’s offense as obstruction of justice, even though that charge was dropped, and urged a sentence of one year in prison.

“He gave Goland a choice of verdicts because he (Kuhnke) wanted to ingratiate himself and take advantage of Goland’s real estate connections,” Mansfield said. “He told other jurors that after the trial he intended to contact Goland for some help.”

Kuhnke tossed the note to Goland in a parking lot after the jury had completed its first day of deliberations and shouted, “I’m in control of your fate!”

But the next day, Goland told U.S. District Judge Ronald Lew about his communication with Kuhnke. The Huntington Beach man was dismissed from the jury before it reached a verdict.

In sentencing Kuhnke, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie called the juror’s actions “an assault on the criminal justice system and for all that it stands.”

“I can’t think of a more flagrant obstruction of justice,” Rafeedie said.

Kuhnke pleaded guilty Aug. 29 to one felony count of criminal contempt in a plea agreement in which the government dropped a second count of obstruction of justice.

Shortly afterward, he was fired from his job supervising quality of subcontractor work for the U.S. Department of Defense Logistics Agency.