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Court: Man's conviction OK despite ex's counsellor on jury

SANDUSKY, Mich. — Can you get a fair trial if your ex-wife’s marriage counsellor is on the jury? The Michigan appeals court says yes.

Jason Nelson was convicted of assault in Sanilac County in 2017. He says he didn’t realize until after the trial that one of the jurors was a marriage counsellor who had met with him and his former wife four years earlier. Nelson says it was a stormy session with profanities.

The counsellor said he remembered Nelson’s ex-wife, but he didn’t recall meeting Nelson. He told a judge that he acted fairly as a juror. The assault allegations against Nelson didn’t involve his ex-wife.

Nelson wants a new trial, but the appeals court ruled Tuesday that there’s “no evidence” that the counsellor lacked impartiality as a juror.

The Associated Press