At noon, the jury says it's deadlocked, but it continues deliberating through the afternoon. It will resume today.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 17, 2006

BY PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer

PROVIDENCE -- First it looked like a win for the paint companies. The six-person jury said at noon yesterday that it was deadlocked. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch showed up to face the bad news. His staff looked grim.

There was a reprieve when the jury agreed to continue deliberating on the state's public nuisance lawsuit. Believing the jury would come back soon, dozens of lawyers waited all afternoon in the courtroom.

Finally, the tables seemed to turn at day's end, when the jury informed the judge that it was tired and wanted to go home. But it planned to continue deliberating today.

At that point, the state's lawyers left with big grins.

It was a turbulent day yesterday for the six-person jury and the dozens of lawyers involved in the grueling, 15-week trial of the state's public nuisance lawsuit against Sherwin Williams, NL Industries, Millennium Holdings LLC and Atlantic Richfield.

The case went to the jury late Monday. The jury has returned to the court with several questions, and it looked like it had another one around noon yesterday.

Except Judge Michael A. Silverstein told the lawyers privately that the jury was deadlocked. That news prompted an hour of closed-door legal arguments by lawyers on both sides.

The defense wanted the judge to declare a mistrial. The state wanted him to urge the jury to try more deliberations.

For the first time, a radiator started groaning so loudly people wondered if they could hear another word in the courtoom.

At 1 p.m. the radiator calmed down and the judge called the jury back to the courtroom. One juror, a young woman, was crying. Another juror, an older woman, quietly comforted her.

Silverstein announced that he had a note from the jury saying "at this point in our deliberations we have arrived at a deadlock as to question number one."

Question one for the jury was a determination of whether lead paints were a public nuisance in Rhode Island. The jury was to decide that issue, and then go on to two others: Are the four defendants responsible and should they be ordered to clean up the paints which remain on an estimated 240,000 housing units?

Silverstein said he didn't want the jury foreman to comment on what the deadlock vote was, or what the precise disagreement was. But he did want to know whether the jury felt it could resolve the deadlock if it took more time.

The jury foreman said he would like to poll the jury to find out. The jury went back to the jury room, and didn't come down again for the rest of the afternoon. At 4 p.m. the foreman sent a note to Silverstein saying the jury was tired and wanted to go home.

When the jurors gathered in the courtroom for dismissal by the judge, they looked serious, but no one was crying.

This time as lawyers left, some said they had never seen anything like these deliberations.

plord@projo.com/ (401) 277-8036