Judge may have to change Stevens jury

The federal judge overseeing Sen. Ted Stevens's corruption trial scheduled an emergency meeting Thursday night because a juror might have to leave Washington immediately to deal with a family matter.

After the second day of deliberations ended Thursday evening, a middle-aged woman, who works as a paralegal, reported to the marshal that she could have to travel to Texas to see an ill family member. Delaying deliberations would push a verdict closer to Election Day, when the Alaska Republican faces the toughest reelection bid of his 40-year Senate career.

{mosads}Judge Emmet G. Sullivan hastily arranged a Thursday evening hearing to determine how to proceed with the trial, now in its fourth week.

According to people attending the hearing and wire reports, the judge was uncertain whether the juror only had to leave for a short period of time and if delaying deliberations until Monday would accommodate her.

But he is weighing whether to bring in an alternate juror or whether to proceed with deliberations with just 11 jurors. An alternate juror — who sat through the entire case — will be brought into the courtroom Friday morning. The judge has asked the parties to brief the court in writing by Friday morning on how best to proceed.

And he has scheduled a status hearing for 9 o'clock Friday morning to discuss the issue.

In a late Thursday night filing, Stevens's attorneys suggest that deliberations for Friday should be scrapped to accommodate the juror. They say if she can no longer serve, deliberations should continue with just 11 jurors.

The development is the latest  twist in the deliberations, which started Wednesday, and bringing in an alternate would require jurors to restart their discussions. Jurors asked to leave early Wednesday after reporting "stressful" conversations, and on Thursday, 11 jurors asked  the judge to dismiss one of the jurors for "violent outbursts." The judge declined to dismiss the juror, who works as a bookkeeper at the D.C. National Guard.

Stevens, 84, has pleaded not guilty to seven felony charges of making false statements.