Lawyers for fintech entrepreneur Charlie Javice have been seeking post-verdict interviews with the federal jurors who convicted her of fraud in Manhattan last week — leaving one so rattled that they reached out to the US Marshal Service to complain.
“Several jurors have expressed concerns and discomfort from efforts by the defense attorneys to contact them and inquire about jury deliberations,” the trial judge wrote to the defense team, revealing the jurors’ concerns in a sternly worded warning letter.
Signed by US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, the one-page letter was sent to the defense team ten days after Javice was found guilty of tricking JPMorgan Chase into spending $175 million for her student financial aid startup, Frank. The letter was made public the next day, on Tuesday.
In it, Hellerstein notes that “post-trial communications and contact with jurors are permissible after the jury has been discharged.”
He then orders the defense team and anyone working for them to follow New York state’s rules for the professional conduct of attorneys.
The rules bar attorneys from contacting discharged jurors under certain circumstances, including if the juror has made clear they do not want to communicate with the lawyer and if the lawyer’s communication involves “misrepresentation, coercion, duress or harassment.”
Lawyers who violate the rules of conduct can face disciplinary action, including a judge’s reprimand, and, in extreme cases, the suspension or loss of one’s license to practice law.
Defense attorneys and a representative for Javice did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s inquiries about the letter.
Javice, 33, remains free on $2 million bail pending a sentencing scheduled for August 26. Her codefendant, Olivier Amar, is scheduled for sentencing on July 23. Their fraud and conspiracy convictions carry a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.
Both have been fitted with ankle monitors — over their strenuous objections — while they remain free pending sentencing. Both are continuing to fight the requirement that they wear the bulky accessory.
Lawyers for Javice have argued that wearing a monitor makes it “impossible” for her to teach Pilates in her home city of Miami Beach. “To have your legs in the air and the monitor going up and down on your leg — it is a significant encumbrance,” her attorney, Ron Sullivan, told the judge during arguments last week. An attorney for Amar argued that wearing a monitor “makes him a pariah.”
The judge expressed concerns that both defendants have citizenship in countries that do not extradite — Javice is a dual US and French citizen — and said last week that he would issue a ruling at a later date.
Read the full article here
