Ex-KIRO radio host's trial for fraud ends in a mistrial

The insurance-fraud trial of former radio talk-show host Mike Webb ended in a mistrial Thursday after a judge determined the jury had been tainted by seeing Webb handcuffed by police following an outburst outside the courthouse a day earlier.

"The taint is too great; it does not afford Mr. Webb a fair and impartial trial. I do not have any choice," King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector told jurors Thursday after some of them testified that they witnessed or heard about the incident before they were to begin deliberating.

According to a Seattle Police Department report, police found Webb acting "irrational and irate" on James Street and Second Avenue after testimony in his trial concluded just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. A woman told police that Webb had threatened to kill himself if found guilty and that he had access to a gun in his house, the report stated.

When an officer contacted Webb on the street and asked if he would allow police to retrieve the gun from his home, Webb said no, according to the report.

Webb was not arrested, but he was handcuffed and taken to Harborview Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation, according to Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel.

Though not speaking specifically about the Webb case, Kappel said police generally handcuff people even if they're not under arrest if they display hostile behavior, out of concern for officer safety.

After the incident, Spector learned that several jurors had seen or heard about the incident, and on Wednesday ordered the jury to stop deliberating and go home for the day.

Thursday morning, Spector questioned half the jurors individually about what they saw. Five knew some details about the incident, though most or all mistakenly believed Webb had been apprehended for jaywalking. A sixth juror believed an attorney in the case had been caught jaywalking.

When interviewed, the jurors told Spector said they thought they could put the incident aside and deliver a fair verdict. But Webb's attorney, Mark Larranaga, asked the judge to grant a mistrial. "It's tainted more than a third of the jurors," he said of the police incident.

Deputy Prosecutor Nancy Balin initially objected to a mistrial, but then said the state would support the decision.

Webb was in court Thursday but sat with his head on the table during the entire hearing.

Webb worked for KIRO-AM (710) radio for 10 years and hosted a liberal late-night show before he was fired weeks after being charged with the felony in December. If convicted, he could face up to a year in jail and $10,000 in fines.

Prosecutors and police say that Webb, 51, filed a fraudulent insurance claim with Geico insurance after a traffic accident on June 28, 2005, when his Lexus was struck by another vehicle driven by an uninsured driver near the University Bridge in Seattle. During the trial, Geico investigators testified that it wasn't until the day after the accident that Webb purchased an insurance policy online from their company.

Webb, however, testified that he believed he had purchased insurance from the company about five weeks before the accident. He suggested a computer glitch might be at fault. He also said he thought he was pursuing the claim under the other driver's policy.

In court, Webb often appeared agitated, angrily disagreeing with the prosecutor's statements, launching into narratives on the stand even when the judge and attorneys told him to stop speaking, and temporarily refusing to testify Wednesday because a Seattle Times photographer was taking his picture.

Webb told the judge after that outburst that he had received death threats during his time on the air and wanted to keep his image out of the public's view.

At least one of the "tainted" jurors referred to Webb's courtroom outbursts during the interviews Thursday, saying she thought the police incident was a continuation of the frustration Webb had displayed before the jury.

"I thought ... this man was so distraught with the trial, did his anger come out? This is the way I took it — his stress erupted ... we did witness a little bit of his stress," she said.

Prosecutors are planning to retry Webb. That could begin within the next couple of weeks, said spokesman Dan Donohoe.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.