Jurors in Bear Stearns case go public

It's not uncommon for jurors in big trials to go public after they reach a decision. In the trial of Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, among the first to speak to the media was Stephanie Stimpson, who works at Brooklyn College. She was interviewed by Bloomberg and the headlines were memorable: "Bear juror says U.S. case was so weak she'd invest with defendants." Ouch! She said she came into the trial thinking the two were actually guilty. But then felt the defense lawyers "tore the government witnesses apart."

Bloomberg spoke with others and the consensus seems to be that the emails and witnesses were just not convincing. One said the emails she saw suggested that the two were doing everything they could to save the funds. These comments will have to be parsed by any prosecutor pondering a case of this ilk. Emails were once thought to be a boon to prosecutors, but that's not turning out to be the case. One might conclude here that to bring a case you need much more than interesting emails. 

For more:
- here's the article

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