More drama crops up among Stevens jurors

WASHINGTON — After sitting through a four-week trial, the jury in Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption case had a near meltdown Thursday after just two days of deliberations.

First, 11 jurors sought to boot the 12th from the panel after they complained she had been "rude, disrespectful and unreasonable" and had engaged in "violent outbursts." Then, after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had resolved the problem, another juror apparently left town to tend to a sick relative.

There's little indication the problems on the jury have anything to do with the actual deliberations in the case, which involve determining whether Stevens is guilty of making false statements on his Senate financial-disclosure forms.

However, they could have an effect on the makeup of the jury and therefore the trial's outcome.

Sullivan asked for lawyers on both sides of the case to offer up their preference by 9 a.m. today. They have two options if the juror with a sick relative can't return to the trial: bring in one of the alternate jurors who already has been dismissed or proceed with just 11 jurors.

Compiles from McClatchy Newspapers and The Associated Press reports