A juror faints, the defendants rush to help: A mistrial in the Charlie Weis case

Bizarre turn of events:

A Suffolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial in former Patriot coach Charlie Weis’s medical malpractice lawsuit today after two doctors involved in the case came to the aid of juror who passed out during testimony.

The juror began audibly gasping and collapsed at about 10:15 a.m. Several doctors — including the two surgeons accused of botching Weis’s gastric bypass — rushed to help. People in the courtroom began to shout: “Call 911! Call 911!”

Several people called for help, including defense attorney William J. Dailey Jr. An ambulance rushed the juror to a local hospital. His condition was not immediately available.

Weis’s lawyer, Michael E. Mone, quickly filed a motion for a mistrial after the man fell ill, arguing that the other jurors could have been influenced by what happened in court.

“I talked to my client and told him he basically had no choice,” Mone said outside court. “He was very reluctant to have a mistrial, but I told him there was no choice, and we had to have a mistrial.”

The judge had little sympathy for the hundreds of patients that would be affected by another trial:

A lawyer for the doctors said a mistrial would be unfair to the surgeons, who had rearranged their schedules to accommodate Weis, who is in the offseason for football.

Judge Charles Spurlock, however, agreed to grant a mistrial.

“The integrity of the court is more important than schedules,” Spurlock said.

Prev
Next