The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Widmer juror: 'I felt weight of making such a decision'

New top appellette attorney added to defense team

2nd juror in Widmer bathtub murder case influenced by ‘experiments’

Road closing for railroad repairs
New 14 min. ago
Caesar Creek Lake boater falls overboard, medics attempting rescue
Updated 17 min. ago
Beach Waterpark sued by Ohio Attorney General's Office for failure to deliver
11:34 a.m.
Worker falls 20 feet from utility pole
11:14 a.m.
Out-of-state shoppers arrested in clothing theft
10:14 a.m.
> More headlines

By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer 11:54 AM Friday, April 24, 2009

A juror in the Ryan Widmer murder trial said she didn’t realize, at the time, discussions about at-home experiments by jury members was a mistake.

Stephanie Sackman, who signed a sworn affidavit about the jury discussions, said her experience following the jury’s verdict to convict Widmer of murdering his young wife has been trying.

“It was a very difficult experience and one I don’t want to have again anytime soon. The things I’ve been reading about it are very polarized, like the jury was paid off or that he deserves to go to prison,” Sackman said. “Neither one of those polar ends represent the complexity really of what we had to look over and try to piece together. There was nothing about it that was easy. I felt the weight of making such a decision very heavily.”

Widmer, 28, was convicted April 2 of killing Sarah Widmer, 24, in the bathtub of their Hamilton Twp. home last August. He is serving 15 years to life at the Warren Correctional Institution.

Defense attorney Charlie Rittgers contends Widmer did not receive a fair trial for several reasons, chief among them is that jurors experimented on their own on how fast they air-dried after bathing and discussed it during deliberations.

The crux of the entire case has been that the drowning scene was virtually dry when first responders arrived. Rittgers has requested an acquittal or new trial for Widmer.

During an in-chamber meeting on Thursday, April 23, Judge Neal Bronson postponed a hearing on Rittger’s request. The defense attorney also agreed to withdraw the subpoenas he issued to seven jurors and four local TV stations to testify. He said he didn’t need the jurors to appear once he secured an additional two affidavits from jurors.

Sackman said she originally thought it was reasonable for Sarah Widmer’s body to be dry after six or seven minutes, but the “experimenting” jurors convinced her otherwise.

Bronson hasn’t decided yet whether to consider Sackman’s and two other affidavits about the experimenting.

Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said the affidavits ought be approached just like the subpoenas.

“The function of the jury is one of the most critical precepts of the American justice system,” the prosecution’s motion to strike reads. “Jurors have an inherent right to be free from interrogation.”

Hutzel said the sworn affidavit is virtually identical to testifying under oath, and Ohio laws prohibit requiring jurors to defend their decisions.

Rittgers maintains Widmer’s Constitutional rights were trampled when the jurors shared their experiments with the panel, because the defense had no opportunity to address the experiments.

Sackman, who has never served on a jury before, said it never occurred to her that the jury may have been mistaken in considering the experiments. And she felt obligated, when asked, to swear out her affidavit.

“It just didn’t register with me that that was wrong, or an experiment even,” she said. “If it rises to the level of an experiment, based on whatever the judge thinks, then it is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Widmer has a new top legal expert on his defense team. Pierre Bergeron, who chairs the appellate and Supreme Court practice group in the Cincinnati office of mega law firm Squire Sanders, has joined Rittgers to help with the post trial proceedings and an appeal, if there is one.

Bergeron said he is still getting up to speed on the case.

“The issues raised on the new trial and the acquittal are very significant issues and we think they are going to warrant very serious consideration by the court,” he said. “Clearly the judge wants some time to figure out these issues and I think that’s a good sign.”

Bergeron was listed in the 2009 edition of “Ohio Super Lawyers — Rising Stars” and was selected in the top 2.5 percent of lawyers under the age of 40.

Share this article