SUPERIOR Court Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio on Monday denied the defense motion for mistrial in the trial of former Chief of Parole Nick Reyes and F&S Corporation owner Chuilian Fu, who are charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and theft by deception.
Before denying the defense’s motion for a mistrial, Judge Kim-Tenorio asked each juror whether the dictionary and thesaurus they requested would affect their deliberations, and whether bringing in outside materials would impact their ability to consider the jury instructions and trial evidence.
Each juror said “No.”
On Thursday afternoon, Judge Kim-Tenorio, who is presiding over the trial, received a request from the jury for a dictionary and a thesaurus to look up the definitions of “pecuniary” and “theft.”
Pecuniary refers to “something that is paid or given in money or a monetary interest in something.”
Theft means “the action or crime of stealing.”
Because the defense team was not immediately notified of the jury’s request, they asserted that their clients’ Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial had been violated.
After the motion hearing, Judge Kim-Tenorio instructed the jury to continue their deliberations.
The jury trial started on April 7.
Assistant Attorneys General James Robert Kingman and David Krach are prosecuting the case.
Reyes is represented by attorney Joaquin Torres, while Fu is represented by attorney Anthony Aguon.
Jurors began deliberations on Tuesday last week, but as of Monday afternoon, they had not reached a verdict.
According to the information filed by the Office of the Attorney General in Superior Court, on or about Oct. 4, 2022, Reyes agreed with Fu “that one or both would engage in or solicit theft of property by deception, to wit, the construction of a patio at the Parole Office purported to be constructed by a tailoring company owned by Chuilian Fu’s F&S Corporation in the amount of $9,997.80, but actually constructed by uncompensated labor performed by parolees under the direction of…Reyes.”
The defendants have denied the charges.
