June 18 9:33 PM ET

Mistrial in key Kiryas Joel cases

By Chris McKenna, The Times Herald-Record reporter

Kiryat Joel, White Plains NY (TTHR) -- The trial of two Kiryas Joel men accused of leading fraud schemes that took in millions of dollars ended with a mistrial yesterday because of one dissenting juror.

After five weeks of testimony, two days of closing arguments and four days of jury deliberations, it became clear Friday that one distraught juror might be unable to continue. Yesterday morning, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon convened the lawyers and declared a mistrial.

"This is the hardest decision I've ever had to make," she said.
Afterward, defendants Mordechai Samet, 41, and Chaim Hollender, 26, returned to the Putnam County Jail in Carmel. Their lawyers plan to request bail hearings this week. A new trial has been set for Oct. 28.

The outcome was a partial victory for the defense, which for five weeks had to argue its way around evidence so extensive it filled 30 large cardboard boxes in the courtroom. "The government put on the best case it could and was unable to obtain a unanimous verdict of guilt," said Samet's lawyer, Samuel Burstyn.

The U.S. Attorney's Office had no comment. Prosecutors had asked McMahon to remove the holdout juror and either replace her with an alternate or allow the 11 remaining jurors to reach a verdict. The judge turned down the request.

The defendants were among 14 men charged in March 2001 with taking part in fraud schemes that allegedly netted more than $5.5 million over five years. Prosecutors say the scams included collecting tax refunds for fictitious people or defrauding banks by depositing phony checks.

Eight suspects pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced. The trial of Samet and Hollender – who together faced 73 counts, including racketeering and bank fraud – was to have to been the climax of the case.

But the climax began to fizzle Friday morning with a series of calls from a distressed juror, Sylvia Meyer. "I'm physically sick to my stomach," she said in a phone message later played in court. "I no longer feel that I can be fair." She later called back and said, "I'm just going to vote the same as everyone else, just to be done with this."

Questioned alone in court that day, Meyer said another juror had verbally abused her. She couldn't tell McMahon where she stood on the charges, but it was clear she felt the others were pushing for convictions.

"It's like searching and searching and searching to find something else that might tie this here or that," she said. "It's ridiculous what's going on. I don't think it's fair."

Yesterday afternoon, Samet's wife, Sarah, stood chatting with a friend on a sidewalk across the street from her home on Satmar Drive. She and her children had sat amid a crowd of Hasidic supporters in McMahon's courtroom in White Plains that morning to pray for her husband's release.

"God, he is the boss," she said. Taking over, her friend said, "If you believe in God and pray to God, God helps."

She said Sarah Samet's faith was an example to others. And she said her friend had been confident about the outcome of the trial: "She didn't think it's going to be different."