In a highly unusual twist, a juror was arrested in the middle of a medical malpractice trial and accused of soliciting bribes in order to procure plaintiff Bridget Wigand’s verdict.
Wigand is suing her physician in a medical malpractice case which proceeded to trial in New York. As the jury neared deliberations, Wigand’s father was contacted by a man who claimed to have important information pertaining to the case. He agreed to meet the man and was shocked to recognize that it was Deonarine Persaud, one of the jurors on the case.
Persaud claimed that he could sway the jury into producing a plaintiff’s verdict in the case in exchange for 5% of the financial award. The plaintiff and her family went to the police, and Persaud was arrested in the midst of the malpractice trial. He was charged with misconduct by a juror and soliciting a bribe. Wigand’s case was declared a mistrial, and will start again from scratch.
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