Guilty verdict by drunk juror ok'd by NY judge

I'll keep this in mind when I get called for jury duty. Apparently drinking on that job is a-ok:

That was the ruling served up yesterday by a judge who refused to overturn a guilty verdict after a juror admitted boozing it up during deliberations. The unnamed Manhattan juror downed at least 6 ounces of vodka last spring while weighing the evidence against a retired firefighter who was convicted of stealing artifacts from Ground Zero.

So says this article in the New York Daily News. Here's an article on this situation in the NYT, which notes:

The justice, in her opinion, relied on a 1987 United States Supreme Court decision involving a jury that made Juror No. 4 [our drunk guy] look like a Calvinist preacher. Those jurors ... drank, used cocaine, smoked marijuana, sold drugs to one another and slept through a conspiracy and fraud trial that one juror called "one big party."

In that case, the court ruled: "However severe their effect and improper their use, drugs or alcohol voluntarily ingested by a juror seems no more an 'outside influence' than a virus, poorly prepared food or a lack of sleep."

Our drunk juror number 4 has been identified as 57 year old John Anastas from the East Village. I'm sure his parents are proud.

Via Gothamist.