Jeremy Roebuck, Inquirer Staff Writer January 17, 2014
Jurors in the racketeering retrial of reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Ligambi and his nephew George Borgesi said Friday they had reached a partial verdict, but a federal judge urged them to keep deliberating.
In a note sent to the judge just before 10:30 a.m., the jurors said that they had found unanimity on two of the five counts against the mob figures, but there remained "a firm difference of opinion on the other three." They gave no indication on which counts they had made a decision.
"This was a long trial and there were some complex issues," U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno told the group before sending them back for further discussion. "Often with further discussions, jurors are able to work out there differences."
Friday's note came four days after the panel of 11 women and one man told the judge they had reached an impasse and were unable to come to a decision on any of the counts.
Witness describes collecting debts for the mob Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor said that the three days of deliberations since showed the group was making some headway in their logjam.
"They're making progress," he said in court. "Monday they thought they were done, and now we've had three days and they have a verdict on three counts."
Last year, a different jury deliberated for 21 days on the same charges before declaring they were hopelessly deadlocked. That inability to reach a verdict resulted in a mistrial and prompted the current retrial.
