WHEELING — After more than five hours of deliberation Monday afternoon, the jury tasked with deciding the fate of Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy Lance Kuretza went home without coming to a unanimous decision on his guilt or innocence.
The jury will reconvene Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.
Before beginning their deliberations, Chief United States District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh instructed the jury that in order to find Kuretza guilty of the two counts he is charged with they must find all parts of each charge to be proven beyond all reasonable doubt based on the evidence they were presented.
The first count Kuretza is accused of is deprivation of rights under color of law. Kleeh explained there are four parts to the indictment, or formal charge.
To find the defendant guilty, the jury must unanimously believe the government proved that Kuretza was under color of law, which neither side contests being that he was on duty as a uniformed officer responding to a call.
They must also find the U.S. proved Kuretza deprived the victim, Quintin Graciano, of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure or force and that he did so willingly, which is the third part that must be proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
The final part of the first count is use of a dangerous weapon, which the U.S. attorneys allege was pepper spray in this case, or that the offense resulted in bodily injury.
The second count Kuretza faces is destruction, alteration and falsification of records, which Kleeh instructed has three parts.
In order to find Kuretza guilty of the second count, prosecution must have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Kuretza knowingly falsified the reports regarding the arrest and use of force against Graciano. They also needed to prove that the reports were falsified with the intention to impede any investigations into the incident.
The third part is that the alleged crime was committed within the jurisdiction of the United States government. Because the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency of the United States, investigated the crime, both sides agreed this part to be true.
The seven men and five women of the jury heard four days of testimony last week from 10 witnesses called by the U.S. attorneys. The defense rested without calling any witnesses.
