The trial of San Jacinto County Judge William Law, for illegally keeping porn on his county laptop computer ended in a mistrial February 21, when the jury foreman remained the lone holdout for conviction after nine hours' total deliberation.
The jury came in February 21 telling trial judge Barbara Hale they could not reach a unanimous verdict. This was in spite of a break in which the jury asked for and got a re-reading of defense testimony that Law wasn't present on several occasions when the computer in question was used for porn.
Law, who is on paid suspension from his job, is likely to face a re-trial on the charges, though a new trial date hasn't yet been set.
Published reports indicated the jury was prepared to acquit Law February 18 on breach of security charges but couldn't agree on a lesser charge, with first two and then one holdout for convicting the judge.
Law's defense maintained the porn was planted on the judge's county laptop, while prosecutors showed evidence they said indicated Law was the online user notsowild2001 visiting porn sites and having sexual conversations online on the county laptop.
"(M)any of us felt like the prosecution did not prove (their) case beyond a reasonable doubt," juror Lori O'Brate told reporters after the mistrial declaration, saying the prosecutors never established irrevocably that Law and notsowild2001—which they said was his username on his home computer—were one and the same.
The jury was apparently impressed, too, when a defense computer expert testified the county computer system had no firewalls, making it very easy for those computers to be hacked or otherwise infiltrated.
San Jacinto County special prosecutor Frank Blazek told reporters he didn't expect a guilty verdict—but he learned after the jury was empanelled that one juror was the daughter of a woman who ran a political action group supporting Law during his election campaign. Blazek blamed himself for not asking enough questions during jury selection.
Other published reports indicated political passions might have had a play in the Law case, with one report saying political divisiveness in the county has often provoked "threats and allegations of pornography, racial bias and conspiracy—and several indictments." Law supporters have been reported accusing the county's "old guard" politicians of setting him up to run him out of office, and Law's defense team suggested porn might have been planted on his county laptop with just that purpose in mind.
Indeed, San Jacinto County district attorney Mark Price—like Law a relative political newcomer—and two precinct commissioners, Joseph Johnson and Louis Rogers, are awaiting trial on various charges. And Cold Spring mayor Jerry Wade accused Price of protecting and not prosecuting Law, when the allegations against Law first arose two years ago.
