Menendez juror: ‘They are just trying to throw a good man under the bus’

HILLSIDE – The juror dismissed from Sen. Robert Menendez’s bribery case said they began deliberations on Monday with nine of them — including herself — prepared to find him not guilty of the most serious charges. By Thursday, they were still deadlocked, she said.

Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby, 61, of Hillside said the government had not made its case against Menendez and three others jurors agreed with her.

“They are just trying to throw a good man under the bus,” Arroyo-Maultsby said during a half-hour interview at her home, hours after U.S. District Judge William Walls dismissed her so she could keep a pre-arranged vacation to the Bahamas.

Arroyo-Maultsby described a tense, sometimes combative, atmosphere in the jury room. The disorganized deliberations at moments broke down, with jurors speaking over each other, and at least once using foul language, she said. Some of the jurors were dismissive of her opinion because they knew she would not be able to continue deliberations after Thursday, she said. 

Menendez is accused of accepting bribes in the form of lavish gifts from his co-defendant, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in return for his political influence on government matters affecting Melgen’s businesses. The trial in federal court in Newark began Sept. 6.

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Arroyo-Maultsby, a verification clerk for NJ Transit, said she was steadfast in her opinion that the senator was not guilty and that the friendship between the two men was sincere. She insisted she would not have changed her mind if she had stayed on the case.  

“I want Senator Menendez to know and his friend, Dr. Melgen, that they didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “They are true friends.”

Arroyo-Maultsby, a Democrat, expressed support for Menendez, saying that she’s pretty sure she voted for him previously and “absolutely” would vote for him after this trial.

She said there was also deep division on the charge that Menendez made a false statement on his Senate disclosure forms. The dismissed juror said she was the only one who thought he was not guilty of this offense initially.  

At one point, she allowed the others to convince her he was guilty, but cried about it overnight, feeling like she had been wrongly swayed. On Thursday, she returned to the deliberations intending to vote not guilty on the charge, and believes she may have convinced others.

Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby said she didn’t believe the government made its case against the senator. She spoke from her home in Hillside, Thursday evening. (Bernadette Marciniak | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 

“I would’ve never slept” if she had not changed her vote, Arroyo-Maultsby said.

At the end of the day Thursday, the judge dismissed the jury for the weekend.

He selected another woman to take her place as deliberations begin anew on Monday. That keeps the composition of the jury at seven women and five men.

Jurors are not sitting on Friday because of the Veterans Day holiday.

This is the second alternate of six selected that Walls has used during the trial, and the first to be used during deliberations.

The first, a man, was replaced when he said during the trial that he needed to attend the two-day funeral services of his grandparent.   

NJ Advance Media staff writers MaryAnn Spoto and Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Luke Nozicka may be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com or on Twitter @lukenozicka.

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