Authorities in Minnesota have confiscated cellphones and taken all seven defendants into custody as investigators try to determine who attempted to bribe a juror with a bag of cash containing $120,000 to get her to acquit them on charges of stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic.
The case went to the jury late Monday afternoon, after the 23-year-old juror, who promptly reported the attempted bribe to police, was dismissed and replaced with an alternate. She told court officials that a woman had dropped the bag at her home and offered her more money if she would vote to acquit. She said a woman left it with her father-in-law Sunday with the message that she would get another bag of cash if she voted to acquit, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
