A Harris County judge declared a mistrial in a high-profile murder case on Wednesday after the defendant’s lawyer argued recent “jury appreciation week” events included comments prejudicial to his client — a move he described as an attempt to tamper with the jury process.
The events, organized by Harris County District Clerk Marilyn Burgess, included speakers from within the county’s criminal justice system along with local TV news reporters, Houston Texans cheerleaders, country singer Will Carter, and Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale.
The event is described by Burgess’ office as a way to celebrate jury service as a civic duty to “help ensure the Consitutional promise of a swift and fair trial by a jury of your peers,” according to a press release.
But at least one speaker’s comments were called into question after a video from the event was posted online. In her comments, she suggested serving on a jury was a chance to provide “justice” for victims, rather than impartiality, according to attorney Sean Buckley, who represents the man accused of murder.
“It was really tantamount to a pep rally for recruiting groups of jurors to go over to the courthouse and convict people of violent crimes,” he said.
Burgess’ office declined to comment Wednesday night. On the District Clerk’s Office website, an FAQ section answers the question, “What is my duty as a juror?”: “As a juror, you must be fair and impartial,” the site says. “Your actions and decisions must be free of any bias or prejudice. Your actions and decisions are the foundation of our judicial system.”
In an email obtained by Houston Public Media, Judge Rabeea Collier informed her fellow criminal court judges about a speaker at one of the events whose comments were called into question.
“I’ve seen juries bring justice to many families in Harris County who have lost loved ones to senseless violence,” the speaker says in a video that has since been removed from Burgess’ social media pages.
Speakers addressed the jurors last week before any of them were assigned to courts. No attorneys were present, and none appear to have been made aware of the comments before Wednesday morning.
Collier told the judges she had requested more footage of the events and would make it available to any court that may have seated juries from that pool.
“For any judge that picked a jury last week and would like to review the footage, please let me know,” she wrote.
Houston Public Media has chosen not to publish the speaker’s name. The video, which was an edited clip posted to Burgess’ social media pages, provides no further context of the speaker’s remarks. She was an invited guest from outside the criminal justice system.
But Buckley said he became “outraged” after viewing the video. He spoke to the judge assigned to his client’s case, Te’iva J. Bell of the 339th District Court, who Buckley said was already aware of the event. Court records show the judge declared a mistrial later that day.
Bell could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Buckley’s client, 52-year-old Itani Milleni, is accused of killing his estranged wife in a staged robbery at her beauty school in 2015. His trial began last week. According to Buckley, jurors from the appreciation week event were picked for that trial.
The lawyer called the messaging at the speaking event inappropriate.
“Frankly, anybody in her position would absolutely know that this is a violation of state and federal law, that it is a conspiracy against my client’s civil rights to a fair and impartial jury,” he said of Burgess. “In over two decades of trying cases it is the most egregious and outrageous example of attempted jury tampering that I’ve ever seen.”
It is not clear whether prosecutors with Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office were aware of the comments made at the event. Dane Schiller, a spokesman for Ogg, declined to answer specific questions about the event or her communications with Burgess.
He did confirm that the DA’s office planned to retry the case.
“We will do all we can to protect society from this defendant, who is accused of a vicious murder,” Schiller said. “We will not be deterred in our efforts to see that all the facts are presented to a jury in a fair trial and that justice is done.”
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