Tyco’s infamous juror No. 4 insisted yesterday that she intended to hold out for an acquittal – meaning the case would have ended in a mistrial even if the judge had let it continue longer than it did.
Ruth Jordan also “absolutely, flatly and repeatedly” denied flashing the “OK” sign to the defense in the embezzlement trial.
Jordan, whose hand gesture on Day 7 of deliberations threw the six-month trial into turmoil, was interviewed by CBS News’ Dan Rather for a segment of “60 Minutes II” that will air tonight.
She said, “At best, it was going to be a hung jury,” according to The New York Times, which tagged along on the CBS interview.
“I don’t think I would have voted guilty on any count.”
Judge Michael Obus Friday declared a mistrial in the prosecution of Dennis Kozlowski, 57, Tyco’s former chief executive officer, and Mark Swartz, 43, the former chief financial officer, who were accused of looting the company for about $600 million.
“Intent – intent was the center of the whole case, at least for me,” she said in the interview. “I don’t think they thought they were committing a crime.”
After the mistrial was declared, several jurors said they were close to a unanimous verdict on several counts – but Jordan said her guilty votes in some jury-room straw polls were a ruse.
“On a couple of occasions I rose my hand, but I didn’t feel it,” she said. “I was abandoning my own standards and beliefs. I was trying to be somebody else.”
Jordan also said her Day 7 gesture wasn’t a signal – she was merely brushing back her hair.
Jordan told Rather she often brushes her hair from her face because her hair aggravates a skin condition causes by shingles.
“Her hand went up to the side of her face several times” during the interview, Rather said, “and she’s a person who speaks with her hands.”
A media storm erupted after the gesture.
The Times sent a reporter to Jordan’s Upper East Side building to interview her concierge and neighbors. That same day, The Wall Street Journal Online printed her name in a story about the incident, as did The Post in the next day’s paper.
Jordan said she had earlier been chastised by the court clerk for smiling at the defense.
She told her interviewers the clerk asked her, “Are you flirting with Mr. Kozlowski?”
The ensuing uproar over the “OK” gesture led to Jordan receiving a letter and a phone call that she told Rather she found “possibly threatening.”
After she told Obus of the two communications, he halted deliberations.
“The caller said something along the lines of, ‘How much money are Kozlowski and Swartz paying you to do what you’re doing?’ ” Rather said.
The letter’s author was interviewed by police last week and said he thought a mistrial had already been declared when he wrote to Jordan.
With Post Wire Services