Allegations emerged this week that jury members followed media coverage of high profile trial, despite orders not to

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Lawyers for convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán intend to petition for a new trial after a news report indicated that multiple jurors followed media coverage of the trial against the instructions of the judge in the case.

Allegations of juror misconduct came to light earlier this week in an article published by Vice News. In the piece, an anonymous juror said jurors had routinely violated the judge’s instructions to “stay away from media coverage, not doing any research on the internet or otherwise and [to not] communicate anything about the case to anyone”.

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The juror told Vice’s Keegan Hamilton: “You know how we were told we can’t look at the media during the trial? Well, we did. Jurors did.”

“We would constantly go to your media, your Twitter … I personally and some other jurors that I knew,” the juror continued after Guzmán had been found guilty on 10 drug trafficking charges earlier this month.

In a letter to Judge Brian Cogan released on Friday, attorney Eduardo Balarezo, who represented Guzmán at the trial, said his client, currently incarcerated in lower Manhattan awaiting sentencing, “intends to file motion for a new trial based on the disclosures in the article and to request an evidentiary hearing to determine the extent of the misconduct”.

Balarezo earlier described the allegations contained in the Vice report as “deeply concerning and distressing”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest El Chapo’s legal team departs after the jury reached a verdict in Brooklyn. Photograph: Kevin Hagen/EPA

“The juror’s allegations of the jury’s repeated and widespread disregard and contempt for the court’s instructions, if true, make it clear that Joaquín did not get a fair trial,” he added.

Federal prosecutors have yet to respond to the claim or the request for a 30 day extension to file for a new trial.

On Thursday, the justice department announced that two of Guzmán’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, 34, and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, 28, have been indicted on a single drug conspiracy charge.

In a statement, the department alleged “that from in or around April 2008, through April 2018, they conspired to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana from Mexico and elsewhere for importation into the United States”.

Both brothers are believed to be fugitives in Mexico.

The elder was extradited to the US in 2017 after twice escaping from Mexican prisons.