Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial will resume Monday morning, with an alternate juror replacing the one who left for her father's funeral in California.

Judge Emmet Sullivan paused proceedings Friday morning after a juror learned Thursday night her father had died and she needed to leave for his funeral. He had hoped to bring the juror back to continue deliberating with the other 11, but couldn't reach her over the weekend to determine whether she would be available.

An alternate will take her place and jurors will continue deliberating Monday morning, although they will have to start fresh with the new juror.

Sullivan said he was leery of proceeding with just 11 jurors, based on the issues that have already surfaced with the jury. Jurors must mull over seven felony counts and determine whether Stevens is guilty of lying on his Senate disclosure forms about gifts, mostly home repairs from the oil services company Veco Corp. and its former owner, Bill Allen. Stevens is also accused of accepting other gifts, though, and failing to report them.

Their first day of deliberations, jurors asked to go home early because they were stressed and needed "clarity." Their second day, 11 of the jurors complained in a note about a 12th juror and asked her to be removed from the panel for being rude and prone to "violent outbursts with other jurors." The judge resolved the problem with a stern lecture on civility and jurors left for the day all smiles. Then, a juror's father died.

The delay pushes a verdict in the case one day closer to Election Day, when Alaska voters also will cast a vote on the 84-year-old Republican's fate. Stevens, who was indicted in late July, asked for an expedited trial date in the hopes of going to voters with an acquittal in hand. Stevens faces the most competitive race of his Senate career, against Democrat Mark Begich, mayor of Anchorage.