US trial ends after 'star-struck' lawyer's Hanks gaffe
A trial at which Tom Hanks was a juror collapsed after a "star-struck" prosecutor spoke to the Oscar-winning actor, breaching jury tampering rules, officials said Thursday.
"Forrest Gump" star Hanks was on the panel hearing a domestic violence case in Los Angeles when the female prosecutor approached him outside the courtroom to praise the fact that he was doing his jury duty.
She was not assigned to the case, but court rules impose a strict ban on lawyers talking to jurors at any time, to guard against the possibility of interfering with the jury.
"She made contact with Mr Hanks in the stairwell of the building. She came up to him and thanked him, and (said) how impressed everyone is that such a celebrity would still be here serving jury duty," Andrew Flier, the defense lawyer in the case, told TMZ.
"So she, in essence, was being maybe a little star-struck and nice, but it's an absolute 100 percent no-no and should never have happened," he told the celebrity news website.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-trial-ends-star-struck-lawyers-hanks-gaffe-172620076.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
