Jury deliberations apparently broke down irreparably minutes before the judge declared a mistrial, according to The Los Angeles Times:
"The jury sent two notes suggesting that talks were breaking down.
'I respectfully ask if you could please remind the jury to remain respectful and not to make false accusations and insults to one another,' one note said.
A second note from a different juror suggested that they were deadlocked on the charges involving the Surplus Property Authority.
The jury announced on Wednesday that it had reached a verdict on 10 charges Wednesday morning but was deadlocked on the remaining 10 charges, according to the county clerk at the Superior Court of Los Angeles. The judge asked the jury to resume deliberating on the remaining charges.
The jury returned from lunch Wednesday to deliberate on the remaining charges. That's when jury communications to the judge began hinting of drama behind the closed doors, The Los Angeles Times reported:
"In a cryptic note, Juror No. 7 told Kennedy he had misgivings about the deliberations, saying he 'questioned myself on information that had me on a [doubt] of thing [sic] that were not presented properly.'"
...
"In another note, Juror No. 10 said that she believes the jury is 'getting away from your instructions' and possibly misunderstanding a law on 'several levels.'"
At one point, a juror asked to be allowed to reconsider the guilty verdicts already handed down, saying "due to the pressure and stress of the deliberation process," the jury may have given an improper guilty verdict. Kennedy declined.
This all comes on the heels of a female juror being dismissed for alleged misconduct just a few days into deliberations.
Defense attorneys said they plan to move for a new trial on the convictions the jury made earlier, based on possible jury misconduct in those convictions, Huffington Post reported.