JURY IN POLICE-ABUSE TRIAL RESTARTS ITS DELIBERATIONS

A juror who told others on the panel that a police officer accused of
sexually abusing Michael Mineo had been previously accused of
brutality was dismissed Friday morning, more than a day after the jury
had started deliberating.

Justice Alan D. Marrus replaced the juror, a young woman, with an
alternate, a traffic enforcement agent. Then he called the
reconstituted panel into the courtroom and told jurors that the
officer, Richard Kern, had never been charged with any previous crime
and that they would have to start their deliberations anew.

Officer Kern is accused of using a baton to sodomize Mr. Mineo as he
was being taken into custody inside the Prospect Park subway station
by police officers who saw him smoking marijuana. Two other officers,
Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, are charged with hindering prosecution,
accused of helping Officer Kern conceal the abuse, in part by letting
Mr. Mineo go with a summons rather than arresting him.

Friday was the end of the fourth week of the trial in State Supreme
Court in Brooklyn.

As they reviewed the case, jurors asked to rehear medical testimony
and to watch surveillance video that showed Mr. Mineo first being
approached by police officers, the moment he ran and the aftermath of
his arrest, when officers brought him up from the subway station in
handcuffs.

About 4:30 p.m., the jurors sent Justice Marrus a note saying they
wanted to go home.

"There is one juror who requests the weekend before providing their
decision," the note said. "We're at a place where we have to stop."