Jury Deadlocked in Noriega Trial : Courts: Judge orders further deliberations. Foreman had told him that one holdout created an impasse in the former Panama strongman’s drug and racketeering case.

Exasperated jurors in the drug and racketeering trial of ousted Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega reported Wednesday that they were deadlocked after three days of deliberations. But a federal judge ordered them to renew their efforts to decide the case.

In a handwritten note given to U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler, jury foreman Lester Spencer blamed one holdout juror for the panel’s inability to come to a decision on the 10 drug and racketeering counts against Noriega.

“We have a serious problem,” the note said. “Apparently there is a juror who has testified that their mind was made up before we entered this room three days ago. We are deadlocked. We feel we are wasting time. What should we do?”

The note, which the judge read aloud in court, did not disclose if most jurors were leaning toward conviction or acquittal.

Hoeveler, who has called a hung jury his biggest nightmare, instructed the jurors to resume their closed-door deliberations and to keep working until they reach agreement.

“This is serious business,” Hoeveler lectured the jurors, who assembled in his courtroom Wednesday morning. “We have been here for over six months. You should carefully consider the views of one another. That’s the purpose of deliberations.”

Hoeveler’s voice rose as he urged the jury to keep deliberating. It was an uncharacteristic display of emotion for the usually mild, grandfatherly jurist. “Please look at this case reasonably and talk about it,” he said.

But the judge provoked laughter when he added: “Let me assure you, you are not going home today.” The jurors have been sequestered in a downtown Miami hotel since Friday night.

A mistrial would be an embarrassment for the government, which has devoted enormous time and energy and spent an estimated $5 million or more in an effort to convict Noriega, who was ousted from power when U.S. forces invaded Panama in December, 1989.

The government contends that the defendant accepted more than $20 million in payoffs from Colombia’s Medellin cartel to protect U.S.-bound cocaine shipments through Panama and to give cartel leaders safe haven after they assassinated Colombia’s justice minister in 1984.

A total of 51 government witnesses and 19 defense witnesses testified during the lengthy trial, which began last September and included a seven-week recess after Christmas while Hoeveler recovered from emergency heart surgery.

If the case should end in a mistrial, the government could try Noriega again on the same charges.

In his note to the judge, Spencer, an insurance company field representative, defended his fellow jurors.

“In fairness to everyone, everyone in this room is honest, bright and reasonable,” he said in the note. “It is affecting all of us because of the seriousness of this case.”

After being admonished by Hoeveler to keep working, the nine women and three men returned to their closed jury room and discussed the case for six more hours before adjourning for the night. They will resume deliberations this morning.

“The judge gave them a real locker-room talk, didn’t he?” one government lawyer close to the case noted. “We’re all hopeful this impasse can be resolved in a few more days. What a terrible waste if it isn’t!”

Legal experts said that, if only one juror is a serious holdout, the problem should be considerably easier for the panel to resolve than if several jurors are adamant.

“When you get more than one holdout, they draw strength from each other, and that can be a real problem,” said a knowledgeable lawyer who requested anonymity.

Other authorities said the appearance of such a problem so early in jury deliberations is not unusual after a long case. They said jurors become close after sitting in a courtroom for months, even though they are forbidden to discuss the case in progress. Then, when deliberations begin, they are shocked to discover that they do not agree on everything and sometimes “just want to walk away,” in the words of one lawyer.

“Three days in a case of this length is not a lot of deliberations,” said Neal R. Sonnett, a Miami attorney and former president of the National Defense Lawyers Assn. “I’m sure the judge is going to explore every avenue to avoid declaring a mistrial.”

“We believe this problem can be overcome,” a source close to the prosecution said. “After the judge’s admonition, the jurors returned to work in a quiet manner and there were no further notes.”

Frank A. Rubino, Noriega’s lawyer, declined to speculate on the seriousness of the impasse but stressed that he and his client want a resolution of the charges rather than a mistrial. Sonnett said, however, that a mistrial “would absolutely be a victory for the defense.”

“There’s a feeling among lawyers that a person is not convicted until a jury says so,” Sonnett said. “A mistrial is an ending without a conviction, and it’s a reflection on the lack of quality of the government’s case.”

Hoeveler has instructed the jury that each of the 10 racketeering, conspiracy and drug-smuggling counts against Noriega should be considered separately. Most are punishable by a maximum of either 15 or 20 years in prison. If convicted on all of them, Noriega would be subject to a maximum term of 160 years and more than $1.1 million in fines.

Prosecutors said the government has spent $1.5 million on informant fees and living expenses for trial witnesses under the federal witness protection program. Another $3 million to $4 million has been spent on incarceration, security and other prosecution expenses, such as travel and salaries for investigators, federal marshals and lawyers.

In addition, Noriega’s defense lawyers are receiving several hundred thousand dollars in government-paid salaries, which they must reimburse if he regains access to his funds.