On May 10, in a move that was as sudden as it was dramatic, a federal district court judge in midtrial acquitted the former in-house counsel at GlaxoSmithKline of all six counts. While Stevens and her lawyers celebrated with champagne, sources say the stunned prosecutors privately complained that the jury would have found Stevens guilty had the judge let the trial continue.
Maybe this will change their minds. When U.S. district court judge Roger Titus informed the jury in private that he had taken the case out of its hands and declared an acquittal, the jurors stood up and applauded. “This jury was very appreciative that the case went the way they wanted it to go,” says Colleen Conry, one of the defense attorneys in the case and a partner at Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C.
