A child sex abuse trial that began earlier this month will now have to be held again, after three jurors were removed and two of them were jailed for contempt of court.
St. Mary Parish Court records show that two jurors in the case against Dong Van Tang were jailed for ignoring court orders.
Tang is accused of multiple counts of molestation of a juvenile. A jury was selected and his trial began August 12, records show.
But after the first day of testimony - during which a victim, now 8 years old, testified - one juror did not return to court and couldn't be located. That juror was replaced with an alternate, and the trial resumed.
But after the second day of testimony, records show, information was provided to the court that a second juror may have lied during jury selection. One of the questions asked of potential jurors is if they know any of the law enforcement officers involved in the case, or if they know the victim, the victim's family or the defendant.
The information provided to the court was that this juror knew the victim's family. When she was questioned about this, this juror said she "knew of" the victim's family because Morgan City is a small town. But the information provided to the court was that she attended social events that the victim's family also attended, that she worked with a family member of the victim's and that she possibly had discussed that relationship with another juror.
One of the orders the court gives to jurors is that they aren't supposed to talk about the case with anyone - including fellow jurors - until after testimony is over and it's time to deliberate.
The court removed both jurors in that conversation, granted the defense motion for a mistrial, then set contempt hearings for the juror who didn't show up and for the juror who may have failed to disclose her relationship with the victim.
Those hearings were held on August 15, with Judge Roger Hamilton sentencing the juror who didn't show up to five days in jail for contempt of court, and sentencing the juror who didn't reveal her relationships, then possibly discussed them with another juror, to 15 days in jail for contempt of court.
The trial has been re-set for November, court records show.
We reached out to District Attorney Bo Duhe about this case, and he told us that serving on a jury is an important role that citizens must take seriously.
"Jurors have to understand how important jury selection and participation is," Duhe said. "Telling the truth in the selection process is vitally important, because failure to do so jeopardizes the right to a fair trial for both the defense and the state, the victim.
"This forces us to put victims back on the stand to testify - and that wouldn't have been necessary if these jurors had followed the court's orders."
We also reached out to the defense attorney, Brady Skinner III of Baton Rouge, who agreed.
"I think jury duty is very important, jurors should take jury duty very seriously. I think jurors should be honest and forthright and forthcoming. All we want are honest and fair jurors. That's all we want. It's about having a fair trial. Everyone has a constitutional right to a fair trial. If you're accused of a crime in this country, you get a fair trial, and part of that is having jurors who are going to be honest about what they may know about the case."
