NEWBURY PARK : Jurors Find Man Guilty in Drug Case

A jury convicted a Newbury Park resident of a drug charge Tuesday but deadlocked on charges that the 26-year-old man tried to run over a sheriff’s deputy with a pickup truck.

Jeffrey Hedlund was charged with one count of transportation and sale of cocaine and two counts of assault on a police officer.

Hedlund slammed his pickup truck in reverse and sped toward Deputy Patrick MacCauley on June 30 after realizing that a man he had just sold cocaine to was a police informant, according to court testimony.

MacCauley testified that he managed to dive out of the way to avoid serious injury.

But Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath declared a mistrial Tuesday on the two assault charges after jurors, who had deliberated for more than a week, told him that they were deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of conviction.

Coyo Ortiz, one of the jurors, said outside court that he voted not guilty on the two assault charges because the prosecution did not prove that MacCauley was behind the pickup truck when Hedlund put it in reverse.

“We could have gone two more weeks and probably would not come up with a conclusion,” Ortiz said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert D. Meyers said his office will decide later whether to retry Hedlund on the charges.

McGrath did not set a sentencing date on Hedlund’s conviction on one count of transportation and sale of cocaine.