“These are uncharted waters,” said Ventura Superior Court Judge Mark S. Borrell, during a quickly set hearing discussing an anonymous note alleging jury misconduct in the $2 million bedbug lawsuit against Santa Barbara landlord Dario Pini.
In 2020, two guests of Pini’s motel, The Shores Inn, were badly bitten by bedbugs and sued for their injuries and mental anguish. The jury, deciding in their favor, ordered Pini to pay one of the largest bedbug payouts in U.S. history.
One day after the verdict was delivered in May, an anonymous note surfaced in a juror’s notebook collected after the case. It stated that two jurors had driven by the Pini’s motel during the trial and alleged that the jury foreperson had a definitive bias against the property.
Judge Borrell said “the circumstance has not happened in this court previously,” on Tuesday morning during the ex parte hearing requested by Pini’s attorney, Wendy Lascher. Lascher appeared in court on Tuesday morning to ask Judge Borrell to delay his signing of the verdict in order to allow time to investigate the anonymous note that she said “raised eyebrows.”
The hotel guests’ attorney, Brian Virag, petitioned to be in court alongside the defendants to oppose the motion. He was present and adamant that there was “no admissible evidence to block the court’s judgement” and that the defense is on a “fishing expedition” to dredge something up.
In the court room, Pini introduced himself to Lascher, whom he had not met before. One of California’s best-known appellate lawyers, Lascher was retained by Pini on June 2, four days after the verdict was delivered. Pini hired her with the intention of filing for a mistrial, or if he needed a new trial altogether.
“Based on my experience handling appeals, I believe that the jury note in and of itself necessitates mistrial,” said Lascher in her declaration included in the ex parte application filed on June 11. In court, she also alleged that she has found more than just the note that points toward a faulty trial.
“There is more evidence in this case for juror misconduct than in most cases,” Lascher said in court.
Judge Borrell said that this is an expedited process and should be treated with a sense of urgency, and delayed his signing of the judgement until July 7, allowing time for investigation.
Pini’s attorney has found an investigator and is in the process of hiring her, and they have paid a deposit for the reporter’s transcript, which they have not received in its entirety. Once officially hired, the investigator will start the process of reaching out to the jurors on the case.
