Nov. 9, 2007
By George Mauzy
An eight-member jury failed to reach a verdict Thursday in the Athens Municipal Court case of a former Ohio University student facing charges in connection with a May incident in Alden Library.
Edward P. Mahony is charged with ethnic intimidation, a third-degree misdemeanor, and menacing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. Mahony, a senior at the time, is accused of verbally threatening and shouting racial epithets at two female, African-American students after confronting them about being noisy.
After deliberating more than two hours, the jury informed the court it was deadlocked. Judge William Grim challenged each jury member to reconsider his or her position and try again to reach a verdict. After about 30 minutes of additional deliberations, the jury announced it could not reach a unanimous decision. Grim then dismissed the jury and thanked members for their efforts.
After a short discussion, Grim, Athens City Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Eliason and Mahony's attorneys, David Winkelmann and David Bear, agreed that the case would be retried with a new jury in December unless a plea agreement is reached in the meantime.
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