Murder Trial Bribery Attempt Alleged

A prosecutor revealed Friday that authorities suspect someone tried to bribe a juror in a highly publicized 1995 murder trial involving Taiwanese national Lisa Peng.

The juror was allegedly offered $1 million by an undisclosed person to acquit Peng of the murder of her husband’s mistress and infant son, Assistant Dist. Atty. Robert Molko said.

The juror was one of two who voted for acquittal at Peng’s 1995 trial, which ended with a hung jury. Peng was convicted in a second trial, but the conviction was reversed on appeal. Her third trial for the killings is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Molko mentioned the previously undisclosed allegation during a bail hearing in Santa Ana. The alleged bribe was the subject of a closed hearing during the 1995 trial.

A witness reported he was playing cards with the juror at the Commerce Club during a recess in the trial when an unidentified person offered to pay for a not-guilty vote, Molko said. The juror denied receiving the offer and was allowed to stay on the jury, Molko said.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan said Friday that he believed “external influences” played a role in the 1995 hung jury. The judge refused a request Friday to release Peng on bail.

According to Molko, Peng traveled from Taiwan to Mission Viejo in 1993 to confront her husband’s mistress, Jennifer Ji. Peng allegedly stabbed Ji to death with a kitchen knife, then smothered the infant son Ji had with Peng’s husband.

Both trials were closely watched by media from China and Taiwan. The Pengs owned a multimillion-dollar radio communications company and maintained homes in Taiwan and California.

Marshall Schulman, who represented Peng during her first two trials, said he does not believe the juror was offered a bribe. Peng certainly had no knowledge of a bribery attempt, Schulman said.

“There was no jury tampering on behalf of Lisa Peng and the defense,” Schulman said. “He probably returned a not guilty vote because there was reasonable doubt. There’s more than one juror that voted not guilty.”

Contacted after Friday’s bail hearing, Molko declined to say whether prosecutors conducted a follow-up investigation to determine whether the juror might have later accepted the money.

Jury bribery cases are rare, but the allegations in the Peng case are not the first in Orange County. In a 1996 case, a former juror pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for offering to bribe a juror to vote not guilty in the cocaine-trafficking trial of former Los Angeles Rams cornerback Darryl Henley.

Peng’s convictions from the second trial were overturned last year by the 4th District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that an incriminating statement Peng made to her husband should not have been admitted at the trial.

In denying her bid for bail, Judge Ryan said Friday that he thought the prosecution proved its case against Peng even without that statement.

“Maybe I missed something at the trial, but I never thought it was a statement case. . . . I just thought it was a circumstantial evidence case,” Ryan said. “[The case had] more motive than anybody could ever want.”