Juror misconduct cited

A member of a jury who privately researched pornographic Web sites during a sexual abuse trial in August committed juror misconduct, a judge found on Friday.

But District Judge Jackie Glass denied a new trial for former Kesterson Elementary School teacher Mark Zana, saying the juror's misconduct did not impact the decision in the case.

On Aug 13, the jury found that Zana, 40, sexually abused three of his students by putting his hand down the shirts of two former students and encouraging one student to dig in his pockets for candy. He was also found guilty of six felony counts of possession of child pornography. He was acquitted of six other similar counts.

Defense attorney Tom Pitaro had requested a new trial, arguing that three jurors who conducted independent research outside of the trial had prejudiced the entire jury.

"None of us know how it affected the ultimate verdict," he said.

Pitaro had also questioned an expert during the trial who stated it is impossible to tell the ages of females on pornography Web sites found on Zana's computers and that some sites depict women over the age 18 who have a more youthful appearance.

Several weeks after the verdict, a juror told Glass' staff that a fellow juror had done independent research, which that juror discussed during deliberations.

Glass hauled the jurors back to court in October. After questioning each separately, she said Friday she learned that one juror had tried to look on his home computer for the Web site the expert had discussed.

All of the jurors were cautioned multiple times not to conduct independent research of any kind during the trial.

Two other jurors said they conducted their own experiments by trying to determine ages of young women at a church and at a mall.

Glass found those two jurors were exercising their common sense and had done nothing wrong.

The juror who researched the pornography sites had committed misconduct, but Glass determined that any information he had gleaned from that experiment was "vague and ambiguous."

"I didn't find that the average hypothetical juror would be influenced by what that juror did," she said.

Prosecutor Tom Carroll had argued the juror who did Internet research told the judge and attorneys during questioning he did so to argue his belief that Zana was innocent, which was not prejudicial to the defendant.

"The juror didn't research Mark Zana. He didn't go out and look for background information," Carroll said.

After the hearing, Pitaro said he plans to appeal the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Zana will be sentenced Dec. 20.