Mistrial Is Declared After Jury Infighting : Courts: Jurors resort to shouting and name-calling. Judge dismisses misdemeanor drug case against Ventura insurance agency owner.

Hopelessly deadlocked over a verdict, a Ventura County jury resorted to shouting, name-calling and pounding on tables--prompting the judge to declare a mistrial and dismiss a misdemeanor drug case Wednesday.

Declaring that no jury would ever agree on the case, Municipal Court Judge John R. Smiley dismissed a charge of being under the influence of methamphetamine against 45-year-old Leroy Holladay, a Ventura insurance agency owner.

Jury deliberations degenerated Tuesday morning into a raucous, finger-pointing confrontation, startling the judge and his staff members. “I was in the hall, and I heard it, my secretary heard it and my bailiff heard it,” Smiley said in an interview after dismissing the case.

“This is extraordinary. Most juries deliberate with great reasonableness and calm, even when they have different verdicts.”

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In court Wednesday, Smiley said he believed Holladay was under the influence of drugs when he was arrested in September. But he said he doubted a jury would ever reach that conclusion.

The jury had heard 2 1/2 days of trial testimony before deliberating four hours Monday, officials said.

At the end of Monday’s deliberations, the jurors told the judge they were split 7 to 5 in favor of a guilty verdict after several members traded strong words, they said.

Hoping to end the stalemate, Smiley ordered the jurors to come back Tuesday morning and give a verdict one more attempt, officials said.

The panel began deliberating at 9 that morning, but within 45 minutes an unidentified male juror, in favor of acquittal, began getting loud, sheriff’s officials said.

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The juror apparently was feeling pressure to change his vote, authorities said. That juror shouted names at another juror he felt was trying to intimidate him, they said.

“The male juror felt that the deliberation process had denigrated to a personal attack on himself,” Senior Deputy Brian Tiffany said. “Whether real or imagined, the pressure got to him.”

The juror slammed the door of a bulletin board built into the wall, Tiffany said.

The door then crashed onto a “call button” designed to alert the court bailiff in case of an emergency, Tiffany said.

The alarm went off and the plastic call button shattered, Tiffany said.

Tiffany and others said it is rare for court security to have to intervene on jury deliberations.

“It’s fairly common for deliberations to get loud,” Tiffany said. “But we have never been to the point where we have been (called into) the jury deliberation room.”

Defense attorney Joseph O’Neill spoke to one of the jurors after the panel was dismissed from its duty.

That juror told him that the name-calling had quickly escalated into some furniture being slammed, O’Neill said.

“It led to some pushing and shoving, there were things being thrown in the jury room,” the attorney said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Denise Payne said she did not know what caused the confrontation.

Smiley said he was later told that the male juror “felt that he was being singled out” to change his vote to guilty.

“Apparently, he pounded on the table a lot, that’s what aroused everyone’s attention and then he slammed the door on the bulletin board,” the judge said in an interview.

The judge, however, said it was important to note that he dismissed charges against Holladay because he thought a unanimous verdict would never be reached given the nature of the evidence and court testimony.

“I do not connect the ultimate mistrial of the case on what happened in the jury room,” said Smiley, presiding judge of the Municipal Court.

Holladay was arrested Sept. 27 in the Montalvo area after being stopped for driving without a headlight.

“I’m happy with the results that I won’t have to go to trial again,” he said outside the courtroom after the judge set him free.

Officials said they have no plans to file charges against the juror for causing a disturbance in a courthouse.