Jurors Deadlock in Trial of Political Fund-Raiser

After two days of deliberations, jurors in the federal tax fraud trial of Democratic fund-raiser Maria L. Hsia reported Thursday that they were deadlocked on all charges.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez sent the jurors home at mid-afternoon and ordered them back to court Monday to resume deliberations.

“I’m not prepared to declare a mistrial at this time,” Paez told Hsia’s lawyer and Justice Department prosecutors, although he indicated that he would if the jurors were unable to reach verdicts Monday.

The jury gave no indication of how it was divided.

Hsia, an immigration consultant from San Marino, is charged with failing to file a personal tax return for 1994, filing false personal returns for 1995 and 1996 and aiding and assisting in the filing of a false return for her business, Hsia & Associates.

In a separate indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, Hsia is accused of funneling donations to the Clinton-Gore campaign through monks and nuns at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights.

She was also charged with using the monks and nuns to launder contributions to Don Knabe’s successful 1996 race for Los Angeles County supervisor, the 1994 reelection campaign of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the 1996 reelection effort of his son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.). That trial is pending.