Pa. judge won’t toss case involving Canadian juror

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania judge has denied a defense attorney’s bid to have his client’s drug conviction dismissed because one of the jurors wasn’t a U.S. citizen.

Attorney Thomas Shaffer says Fayette County Judge Steve Leskinen told him Thursday the juror didn’t deceive anyone and that Shaffer had failed to ask her citizenship.

Shaffer says he couldn’t have known her citizenship because it wasn’t on paperwork he saw.

He found out after his trial when he was in another courtroom where the woman was on a panel for another case and disclosed she was Canadian in response to that judge’s questions.

The jury commissioner says its staff didn’t catch that the woman was Canadian.

Shaffer says he’ll appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.