Just after Bruce Nussbaum, an assistant managing editor at Business Week, was sworn into a Manhattan jury last week in the trial of four lesbians on charges of gang assault, he asked what some might consider astute questions.

Just what kind of gang was this, Mr. Nussbaum wanted to know, and should he take precautions to protect his wife, like sending her away to stay with friends?

The questions, alas, did not endear him to Justice Edward J. McLaughlin of State Supreme Court.

“So do you honestly feel you’re in a position to fairly evaluate this case in view of your mindset that your wife might be in danger from an organized group of violent lesbians?” Justice McLaughlin asked.

To which Mr. Nussbaum protested, “That’s not what I’m talking about, Judge.

“When you use, when one uses, the term ‘gay,’ it generates a number of connotations,” Mr. Nussbaum said, according to the official transcript, though yesterday he said he actually used the word “gang,” not gay, and that the transcript was incorrect.