UPDATE: No Mistrial As Judge Replaces Jurors Barred By 'Trib'

By: E&P Staff With the 5 1/2-month corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in turmoil, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer Tuesday afternoon announced that two jurors, thrown off the panel Monday, would be replaced by alternates, and there would be no mistrial--for now.

Lawyers for Ryan and a former lobbyist also charged in the alleged benefits-for-state-contracts scheme had demanded a mistrial after the Chicago Tribune on two successive days revealed that a male juror and a female juror had concealed arrest records during jury selection back last fall.

They had objected to seating two alternate jurors on a panel that started deliberations on the case March 13.

Pallmeyer said Tuesday that she had "not shut the door on this possibility" of declaring a mistrial, and starting over with a new trial, according to an account on the Chicago Tribune's Web site by staff reporter Matt O'Connor.

Also Tuesday, for the first time the Tribune named the two jurors that it discovered from public records had apparently concealed arrests, and, in the case of one juror, felony convictions. The newspaper had previously not identified the two by name because of a gag order in the case.

"But that restriction was lifted after Pallmeyer dismissed them both from the case," the Tribune said in a story by staff reporters O'Connor, Michael Higgins and Rudolph Bush.

In its Tuesday editions, the rival Chicago Sun-Times did not name either juror, citing the gag order.

The Tribune also published a story explaining how and why it went looking for information on the jurors at the trial's end, and why it went with its information to the chief federal judge last week.

"The paper took extraordinary precaution (sic) by alerting the chief judge of its findings in advance of any publication so that the court might address matters as it saw fit," Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski said in the article by staff reporter James Janega.