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DATE/ AUTHOR None	AUTHORS: Paul Vitello

H Jurors in Drunken-Driver Trial May Be Queried on Verdict

S1 In a rare reprise to a rare trial, the jury that convicted a Long Island man of murder by depraved indifference last October in a drunken-driving crash that killed a limousine driver and a 7-year-old girl may be brought back to court for hearings on whether some members acted improperly during deliberations.

S2 In an answer submitted on Dec. 29 to a defense motion, Robert Hayden, an assistant Nassau County district attorney, agreed that a hearing should be held to determine if jurors discussed what they believed were prior drunken-driving charges against the defendant, Martin Heidgen, 25.

S3 Such accusations were not included in the evidence introduced in the five-week trial, and could be considered a contamination of the jury proceedings.
S4 Beyond that, Mr. Hayden said in his answer, that the belief of a previous drunken-driving arrest was ''not true,'' as far as he knew.

S5 Mr. Hayden said the hearing should be limited to that issue, and rebuffed as ''irrelevant'' several other claims of impropriety raised by Mr. Heidgen's lawyer, Stephen LaMagna, as causes for setting aside the guilty verdict.
S6 Mr. LaMagna also claimed that some jurors felt pressured to vote to convict Mr. Heidgen of the most serious charge, that some discussed the case outside the jury room, and that one said she planned to write a book about it.

S7 The Heidgen case was unusual because the defendant was prosecuted for a fatal drunken-driving crash under laws treating his crime as the functional equivalent of intentional murder.
S8 Such prosecutions, while not unprecedented, are considered rare and are usually brought only in the most horrific cases.

S9 Mr. Heidgen, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit, was driving the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Parkway when his pickup truck crashed head-on with a limousine taking a family home from a wedding.
S10 The crash killed the limousine driver, Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, and Katie Flynn, who had been the flower girl.

S11 The girl's parents and grandparents, who were also in the limousine, suffered minor injuries.

S12 After three days of deliberations, the jury told Acting Justice Alan R. Honorof of State Supreme Court that it was deadlocked, but after he sent them back for more deliberations, reached a verdict on the fifth day.

S13 Within days of the verdict, though, the jury forewoman said she had felt pressured to vote for the charge of ''murder by depraved indifference'' that Mr. Heidgen was convicted of, even though she believed he was guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter.
S14 Based on the depraved indifference conviction, Mr. Heidgen faces a minimum of 25 years in prison.
S15 Manslaughter carries a minimum of 15 years.

S16 Mr. Heidgen's lawyer, who could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, has said that based on interviews with other jury members, he believed that some jurors browbeat the last two holdouts who thought Mr. Heidgen was guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder.

S17 ''It is fairly rare for hearings like these to be held,'' said George Goltzer, vice president of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
S18 ''The general rule is that you don't let a jury impeach its own verdict.
S19 But if the charges are serious -- say that racism or serious misconduct was involved in the decision or something like that -- the courts have allowed it.''

S20 Mr. Goltzer said he was not too familiar with the case, but added that evidence of ''extra-record information'' -- not part of the evidence introduced at the trial -- might qualify as serious enough to review a jury's verdict.

S21 Justice Honorof is expected to decide in the next few days if and when hearings should be held.
S22 A spokesman for the district attorney, Kathleen Rice, said it was expected that with the district attorney's assent, the hearings would be scheduled.

