Judge Boots Jury For Groaning

ST. LOUIS (CN) - A judge dismissed a jury selected for a multimillion-dollar Medicaid fraud trial after jurors moaned as they moved toward the jury box to take an oath. After St. Louis Circuit Judge David L. Dowd asked jurors what the problem was, he called the attorneys for both sides for a private conference where all parties agreed the case could not go to trial with this jury.

Many jurors had expressed concerns about serving in a trial that could take two weeks.

The trial between the State of Missouri and California-based Dey Inc. and New Jersey-based Warrick Pharmaceuticals and their parent companies was set 18 months ago.

Missouri Attorney General Jeremiah Nixon sued in 2005, claiming the defendants overcharged Medicaid more than $15 million in 11 years. Nixon said the defendants boosted their profit by inflating the average wholesale price on three respiratory drugs.

"In my 30 years, I've never seen anything like it," attorney Mike Moore told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Moore, from Dallas, represents the pharmaceutical companies. The two sides agreed to reschedule the trial.

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