Features

Juror dismissed for discussing kidnapping case

The Associated Press
Wednesday May 02, 2001

VALLEJO — A juror was dismissed early Tuesday from deliberations in the case against Curtis Dean Anderson, who is accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old Vallejo girl last August. 

Defense lawyer Carl Spieckerman said Judge Allan P. Carter dismissed a male juror after someone reported to the prosecutor that the man had talked about the case. “He violated the admonition about talking about the case,” Spieckerman said. “He didn’t say anything bad or improper, it was just the fact that he did discuss the case with someone outside the jury. That’s what the rules are, and we’ve got to stick pretty close to them.” 

Late in the day, the jury requested the court clerk read back about two hours of testimony given by the girl. That request was granted by the judge, but he turned down the jury’s additional request to see a transcript of the girl’s police interview given after her daring escape Aug. 12. 

Instead they were allowed to see a videotape of the police interview, since the transcript never was admitted as evidence. 

Anderson, 40, is charged with kidnapping and 10 sex-related charges in the case that went to the jury late Monday. If convicted, he could face life in prison. 

The Vallejo girl, whose name is not being used because of the nature of the crime, claimed Anderson kidnapped her on her way home from school, and kept her locked inside his car for 44 hours while he repeatedly sexually assaulted her. 

The Solano County jury, made up of five women and seven men, deliberated for about two hours Monday, then for about another hour Tuesday before the dismissal. 

An alternate juror, also a man, was called to the courthouse and deliberations were required to begin again from scratch. That alternate juror sat in the courtroom during the entire trial and heard the case.