BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jurors in the retrial of Joseph Bongiovanni, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent accused of accepting bribes from drug dealers to shield them from investigations, appear to have come to an agreement on the verdict of some -- but not all -- of the charges facing the retired federal agent.
Jurors on Wednesday sent a note to U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo asking for clarification on the procedure for reaching a verdict.
"If we cannot agree on every count, will that throw out the ones we did come to a unanimous decision on?" the note asked.
Vilardo called in the jury of 10 women and two men and instructed them that they could come to a partial verdict on the counts they agreed upon. That verdict would be read and the jury would return to deliberate on the remaining counts.
Prosecutors were OK with the hypothetical but defense attorneys objected to the concept, saying they thought the trial should end when the partial verdict was read.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Tripi and Nicholas Cooper pointed out that jurors are in only their second day of deliberations. They argued that jurors should be given more time to deliberate.
Vilardo clarified the procedure to the jurors, instructing them to make all efforts to come to a full verdict "without violating your individual conscience."
A jury at his first trail held earlier this year were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on most of the serious charges against Bongiovanni, who has repeatedly stated that he was not a corrupt agent during his time at the DEA.
In that trial, jurors reached a verdict on three of the 15 charges Bongiovanni faced. They found him guilty on one count of obstruction of justice and one count of lying to federal agents -- relating to a file he kept at his home after he retired -- but acquitted him of deleting data on his government-issued phone.
Jurors could not reach a verdict in that prior trial on the most serious charges, including bribery, that Bongiovanni faced.
Jurors in the retrial continued to deliberate Wednesday afternoon.
