Schmitz jury needs another day

DECATUR, Ala.  — Jurors in the federal fraud trial of state Rep. Sue Schmitz deliberated for a second day Thursday without reaching a verdict and will return Friday.

The 11 men and one woman deliberated for about seven hours Thursday. They’d met for about three hours Wednesday after hearing closing arguments and getting the case.

Schmitz, D-Toney, is accused of using her political position to get a job with a program that helps troubled youth and then rarely showing up for work. Her attorneys said she received little supervision in her job with the Community Intensive Training for Youth program.

U.S. District Judge David Proctor said he wasn’t concerned that the jury might be deadlocked.

“For a trial that has essentially lasted two weeks, I don’t think it’s unusual for the them to take a day and a half. We’ll let them keep working tomorrow,” Proctor said.

Proctor said jurors would resume deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Friday as the trial begins its 12th day.

Schmitz was the first legislator to be tried in the wide-ranging federal investigation of Alabama’s two-year college system.

If convicted she would immediately lose her seat in the Alabama House.

A former high school social studies teacher in Madison County Schools, Schmitz has served in the Legislature since 1998.

She is a member of the House Education Appropriations Committee, which prepares the budget for Alabama’s public schools and colleges.

House Speaker Seth Hammett testified during the trial that he went to the chairman of that committee to ask that money be put in the budget for the CITY program so that Schmitz could be hired.