Jurors testify about claims of racism

Christopher McCowen was led from Barnstable Superior Courthouse yesterday after a hearing on whether there was racial bias on the part of some jurors during his 2006 murder trial. (Jennifer Longley for The Boston Globe)

BARNSTABLE - Jurors who convicted a black trash collector in 2006 of raping and murdering a white fashion writer on Cape Cod hurled allegations yesterday of racism and inappropriate behavior in an extraordinary court hearing held to determine whether bias tainted the verdict.

In the same courtroom where Christopher M. McCowen was convicted, three jurors took the witness stand and said that another jury member referred to the defendant during deliberations as a "big black man" who would no doubt leave the bruises that were found on the much smaller Christa Worthington.

The accused juror, Marlo George, later took the stand and said that she had referred to McCowen as a "200-pound black man" but said she merely "meant it as descriptive."

As juror after juror took the stand yesterday, seven in all, a picture was painted of a jury in one of the state's highest-profile cases in years riven by racially tainted strife. At one point during deliberations, emotions became so heated that the foreman called for a pause to let passions cool.

Adding to the disharmony, yet another juror testified yesterday that one of the accusing jurors called a different juror a "Southern cracker."

Two of the jurors who alleged racism also described a charades-like game played one night at the hotel where they were sequestered during deliberations with jurors pretending to be acting out the phrases, "If some big black guy hits you," and "I'm racist, I'm racist." The two jurors testified that those were mocking references to a confrontation between George and another juror over allegations of racism in the jury room.

If the descriptions of the game are true, it would appear to have violated at least one order from Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary A. Nickerson. He had prohibited the jurors from discussing the case outside the jury room.

Nickerson interviewed seven of 12 jurors yesterday about what they heard and witnessed in the jury room and plans to question the remaining five today. He said he might reinterview all 12 today about how the atmosphere affected them. It is unclear when Nickerson will rule on the motion, which asks him to set aside the verdict and hold a new trial.

After the jury deliberated seven days in November 2006, McCowen was convicted of raping and killing Worthington, 46. She was found stabbed to death in January 2002 with her 2-year-old daughter, Ava, clutching her body, smeared in blood but unhurt.

McCowen, who attended yesterday's hearing, was sentenced to life in prison.

Judicial officials and legal specialists have said it is virtually unheard of for a judge to question jurors about their verdict months afterward, in large part because the unfettered discussions that take place in deliberations are supposed to be confidential. But the courts make an exception if there is an indication that racial bias may have tainted a verdict.

"This is an extraordinarily unusual situation, when a court makes inquiry of jurors after they deliver a verdict," Nickerson told the jurors when they initially gathered together in the box.

The three jurors contacted McCowen's lawyer, Robert A. George, who is not related to the juror, days after the verdict to say that an atmosphere of racism permeated deliberations. The three jurors filed affidavits and largely hewed to them yesterday, with slight changes in details.

Race was a subtext of the case prior to the allegations of bias in the jury room. Robert George argued at trial that police and prosecutors refused to believe McCowen's assertion that he had consensual sex with Worthington, which would account for his DNA found at the scene, and that someone else killed her.

After the three jurors who filed the affidavits finished their testimony yesterday, Robert George said he was convinced that racial bias infected the jury.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the jury deliberations in this case had been tainted by racial bias, based on what we've heard," he said in the hallway of the courthouse.

One of the accusers was Roshena Bohanna, a black woman who left the state after the verdict and now lives in Louisiana, according to a lawyer she hired. Bohanna testified she had an emotionally charged confrontation with Marlo George at an easel in the jury room that displayed photographs of Worthington.

Bohanna said George stood at the easel with a pointer and said that a "big black man" would undoubtedly have left the bruises on Worthington's body.

"I said to her, 'What does black have to do with anything?' " she recalled. "No matter what color the man was, the bruises would have been the same."

Bohanna said she then confronted George and complained that George had repeatedly made racist remarks during the trial, asking questions about Bohanna's cornrows hairstyle and inquiring about her education. Bohanna said George and another juror had also said they thought McCowen was trying to stare them down and was frightening.

The confrontation was so heated that jury foreman Dan Patenaude said yesterday he called for a break in deliberations.

Bohanna said she heard another juror, Eric Gomes, who is dark-skinned, telling other jurors after the confrontation that Bohanna's behavior was "why I don't like black people, because of the way she acts." She said Gomes told other jurors that he hangs around with white people, considers himself white, and has relatives who are married to whites.

Another juror who filed an affidavit, Normand Audet, is white. He corroborated some of what Bohanna said yesterday and added that a juror whose identity he could not recall said blacks generally cause problems.

The third affidavit was filed by Rachel Huffman, a white juror, who deliberated but was later removed from the panel for violating one of the judge's orders. She echoed many of Bohanna's comments and added that she caught jurors who were playing a bizarre game similar to charades at the hotel room in which they were reenacting the confrontation between Bohanna and George over the allegations of racism. Bohanna said she later learned about the game from Huffman.

The four other jurors who testified yesterday, including George, disputed some of the allegations and confirmed others.

Three of the four confirmed that George had used the term "big black guy" before the confrontation at the easel and said that they feared a fight might break out.

But George said she used the term only to challenge a claim by McCowen that he had gone to Worthington's house in the middle of the night for consensual sex. She said she described him as "a 200-pound black man who comes to the house at 2 in the morning, uninvited."

Another juror, Carol Cahill, said Bohanna used a derogatory phrase herself, calling another juror a "Southern cracker."

Gomes confirmed that George used the phrase "big black man" but disputed statements that he said anything about not liking blacks.

The courtroom was packed with spectators, including members of Worthington's family; McCowen's father, Roy, who traveled from Virginia; and Tony Jackett, the shellfish constable and father of Ava, who is now 8 and is being raised by friends of Worthington's.

Jackett, one of several intimates of Worthington's whom police considered a suspect during an investigation that lasted more than three years, said he was unsure what to make of the allegations of racism but thought the three jurors who filed affidavits seemed credible. "Why would they make them up?" he said. "You wouldn't make something like that up and lie under oath."