A federal jury convicted Fumo on March 16 of defrauding the state Senate, a South Philadelphia nonprofit organization and the Independence Seaport Museum, and of trying to obstruct a federal investigation. He is to be sentenced July 14 and could face up to 21 years behind bars.
Fumo's court filing said that jurors were exposed to "highly prejudicial extraneous information" that raised questions about their impartiality when deciding Fumo's fate.
Fumo's defense said that one juror learned from co-workers about Fumo's 1980 federal prosecution on fraud charges (he was convicted but the conviction was later overturned by a federal judge) and the conviction and imprisonment of former Independence Seaport Museum president John S. Carter. Carter pleaded guilty to defrauding the museum on charges unrelated to Fumo and was sentenced to 15 years.
U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter had refused to admit the evidence at trial on grounds that it was unfair to Fumo.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Zauzmer declined comment on yesterday's filing by the defense.
Fumo was convicted of defrauding the museum of more than $100,000 by taking free cruises on its yachts. Fumo's defense was that the cruises had been approved by Carter.
Defense attorney Dennis Cogan said in an affidavit that he learned about the juror from Ralph Cipriano, a former Inquirer reporter and freelance writer who had conducted post-verdict interviews with jurors for a forthcoming story he was writing for Philadelphia magazine.
Cogan also said that he learned from Cipriano that all jurors, when they arrived at the courthouse on March 16, had learned through media reports that one juror's comments on Facebook and Twitter during the trial were being questioned.
After questioning the juror, Eric Wuest, in the presence of prosecutors and defense attorneys, Buckwalter concluded that Wuest was not actually commenting about the trial and did not remove him as a juror.
Buckwalter had repeatedly cautioned jurors not to read, listen or watch news reports of the trial or discuss the trial with anybody, and to report any exposure to outside information to his deputy. (No jurors reported to the court any exposure to information outside the courtroom.)
The court filing said that Cipriano had recently informed Fumo's attorneys that his forthcoming story will include his "journalistic conclusion" that the jury had been exposed to media coverage and information from others during the trial and during deliberations.
Cipriano could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Fumo's defense wants Buckwalter to summon all jurors in the case and question them about what they were exposed to outside court during the trial, then set aside Fumo's conviction and order a new trial.
Last month, Buckwalter denied a Fumo motion for a new trial on unrelated issues. *
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