Mistrial declared for Johns Hopkins doctor, military husband accused of providing patient medical records to Russia
BALTIMORE -- After more than 13 hours of deliberations, jurors could not unanimously agree on the guilt or innocence of two doctors accused of providing their patients' private medical information to Russia.
There was a single holdout juror who believed the government entrapped the defendants and that lead Judge Stephanie Gallagher to declare a mistrial.
One of the jurors spoke to WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren after being dismissed.
"We did our best. Two days of deliberations, and this is the outcome," Denise Fortson said.
She told Hellgren, "The government I believe proved their case."
Doctors Anna Gabrielian, a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, and her husband Jamie Lee Henry, an active duty major in the Army, may still face another trial.
They had no comment upon leaving court.
Prosecutors also had no comment on the matter but told the judge in court they would make a decision "soon" on a retrial and the majority of jurors apparently leaning in their favor would be a factor.
The entrapment issue came up because jurors were presented with five hours of video recorded by an undercover FBI agent. The videos were the basis of the government's case. The agent posed as a Russian government official and first confronted Gabrielian in a Johns Hopkins Hospital parking garage as she headed to work.
One unidentified juror felt the defendants would not have given up the medical records had the FBI agent not prompted them to do so.
Fortson, the juror who spoke to WJZ, believed the judge made the right call in declaring a mistrial.
"She had to be that we couldn't come to a unanimous decision," she said. "We did our duty."
The defendants argued not only were they entrapped but also they were simply trying to provide Russia with humanitarian aid in the war with Ukraine.
Gabrielian testified in her own defense.
Earlier in the day, the judge rejected an extraordinary defense proposal to dismiss the holdout juror and have only 11 jurors decide their clients' fates saying it "flies in the face" of the justice system. The prosecution agreed to the proposal under the condition that both defendants be placed under oath and agree to the dismissal of the holdout juror. In the end, the mistrial was in the defense's favor.
Defense attorneys also had nothing to say leaving court.
The defendants remain free as they await the decision on a retrial.
Related:
- Defense proposes dismissing juror in trial of Maryland doctors accused of helping Russia
- Jury seated in trial of Maryland doctors accused of giving Russia private medical records
- Jurors deliberating fate of Maryland doctors accused of providing patients' private medical files to Russia
- Verdict Watch: Jurors question entrapment and motives of doctors accused of helping Russia
