An attorney for Shirley A. Cunningham Jr., one of three lawyers who were on trial in Kentucky on criminal charges that they allegedly bilked clients out of $65 million received in a fen-phen class action settlement, said his client’s case may have ended in a hung jury because of pretrial publicity.
Attorney Stephen Dobson, the lawyer who represented Cunningham in the eight-week trial and deliberations that ended in a mistrial last week, said he’ll try to improve his client’s defense so as to win over all jurors in any retrial. The jury foreman for the trial, which took place in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Covington, told local newspapers that two of 12 jurors held out against an acquittal of Cunningham and another defendant, attorney William J. Gallion. USA v. Gallion, No. 07-39.
