OGDEN -- A mistrial was declared in a gay-bashing case after a member of the jury admitted knowing a key prosecution witness.
The revelation stopped the trial of Christopher Vonnegut Allen, charged with beating a gay man and a lesbian woman, just as attorneys were preparing for opening arguments Wednesday afternoon.
The two-day trial will not likely start over before February because of scheduling conflicts.
Allen, 31, is accused of beating the two the night of June 2 at an apartment complex while yelling homophobic slurs, leaving the woman unconscious with a broken nose.
"I don't think the motivation was to prevent a fair trial from taking place," Deputy Weber County Attorney Branden Miles told 2nd District Judge Mark DeCaria.
He called it a misunderstanding by the juror of trial rules.
Miles and defense attorney Brian Duncan agreed the trial could not go on over what DeCaria called "a legal defect in the proceedings that would have rendered any verdict reversible. So I'm calling a mistrial."
"In the future," he advised Miles, "have your witnesses take a close look at the jury."
The problem came to light when Victor Lapreese Kirby recognized one of the eight members of the jury, when he passed her in a hallway, as the cousin of someone he once dated and who disliked him.
"She didn't say (she disliked him), but he did date her cousin," Miles said after the hearing.
"Just knowing someone is not the problem, but this was much more personal."
Kirby was the roommate of Wil Phillips when Allen is accused of attacking Phillips, 24, and yelling gay slurs.
Phillips had to ward off blows to his head from Allen's fists and feet, according to testimony at Allen's Aug. 31 preliminary hearing.
Phillips and Kirby were able to push the intoxicated Allen out of their apartment in the complex at 3455 Harrison Blvd.
Moments later, according to the charges, Allen encountered Whitney Goich, 20, who was on her way to visit a friend at the same building, and punched her in the nose, again shouting gay slurs.
As Goich was bent over in pain, Allen allegedly kneed her in the face multiple times.
Jury selection featured the rarity of defense counsel asking prospective jurors their sexual orientation. Duncan phrased the question "Have you or anyone you know been involved in a homosexual relationship?" so they could simply answer yes without further detail, he said.
Few among the jury panel of 35 people answered "yes," and only a handful said they objected to the lifestyle, all but one saying they could set their feelings aside.
That panel member was excluded when he told the court he would not be able to believe a gay man or woman's testimony because, to him, they were not truthful or credible.
Allen is charged with one count of burglary, a second-degree felony, for the alleged entry into Phillips' apartment with intent to commit assault, and two counts of misdemeanor assault for the actual attacks.
Officials had considered charging him under Utah's 2006 bias crime law, but it only goes as high as a class A misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail. The burglary charge can bring a prison term of one to 15 years.
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