Judge might question John Goodman jurors

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath held a hearing Tuesday afternoon after John Goodman's attorneys filed a notice of intent to interview jurors asking about possible misconduct.

Goodman was found guilty of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the traffic crash that killed Scott Wilson.

The possible misconduct concerns were spelled out in a 77-page document and defense attorneys say they came from a fellow juror.

Goodman's attorneys say that juror said members of the jury panel, throughout the trial, disobeyed instructions from the judge and talked about the case when they were not supposed to.

Prosecutors were in court for the hearing Tuesday afternoon while Goodman's attorneys spoke by phone.

The state and defense are in agreement that the jurors should be questioned.

"At this point they are allegations and some of you (reporters) are saying you talked to the jurors and they say that it is baseless. We're dealing with human beings and I don't know why anyone would say these things. I don't know, maybe they were taken out of context, I have no idea what was going on in any eight of the jurors heads. They are all human beings and they all act on whatever they are doing," said prosecutor Sherri Collins.

Judge Colbath plans to research case law and could make a ruling by the end of the week.

"I know that the case law tolerates some juror, misconduct might be too strong a word in this setting but, but uh, it will tolerate a lot of the jurors conduct, and... you  have to cross a pretty bright line before verdicts get set aside and new trials are granted. And so I want to get a firmer understanding of where that line is to be drawn and then set about the task of figuring out, do these allegations fall on one side of that line or the other,"  said judge Colbath.

If the judge decides the jurors will be questioned, they will likely be quizzed one at a time.

Goodman is set to be sentenced on April 30th.