David Harrison

Four jurors who helped decide one of Hamilton County's largest medical malpractice cases are claiming they felt coerced into finding the defendant at fault.

"I stated to some, if not all, of the jurors that I felt like I had just sold my soul to the devil," one juror says in a sworn affidavit.

In April, the Circuit Court jury found Dr. Michael Goodman 51 percent at fault for the condition of his former patient, Kristen Freeman, who has permanent, debilitating brain damage. He had been sued for $12 million and ordered to pay $6.12 million in damages.

Dr. Goodman, a gastroenterologist, performed a colonoscopy and endoscopy on Ms. Freeman, 33, at the Medical Mall at Erlanger hospital in 2006. A day later, complications from the procedures sent her into cardiac arrest.

The four jurors claim in affidavits filed as part of Dr. Goodman's appeal that they felt pressured by the court to find him at fault to spare the time and expense of a retrial.

Attorneys for Ms. Freeman declined comment on the affidavits, stating they planned to file a response in opposition to the assertions that the trial court acted improperly.

The affidavits provide a rare look into the dilemmas jurors often face when asked to decide who is to blame in medical malpractice cases.

Dr. Goodman's attorney David Harrison, however, said the jurors' assertions show misconduct on the part of the trial court, which he said used a discredited legal instruction intended to aid juror deliberation. Instead, the instructions -- given by Judge Jacqueline S. Bolton -- made them feel they had to abandon their "honest convictions" about the facts of the case, he said.

Judge Bolton could not be reached Friday for comment. A hearing in the matter is scheduled for June 22.

Ms. Freeman's attorney claimed at the trial that Dr. Goodman's directions after learning of her nausea and pain, in which he told her to get X-rays instead of going to the emergency room, caused the tragic consequences.

But Mr. Harrison said Friday that Dr. Goodman's attorneys "always said that there was no breach in the standard of care."

At the time of the jury's decision in April, its members had deliberated two days and seemed bound for deadlock, the affidavits state.

But when the jury informed the court that it was deadlocked, Judge Bolton gave new instructions, known as the "Allen charge," in which jurors were told that the trial had been "expensive in time, effort, money and emotional strain," according to court documents filed by Mr. Harrison.

"If a substantial majority of your number are in favor of finding a verdict, those of you who disagree should reconsider whether or not your doubt is a reasonable one, since it appears to make no effective impression upon the minds of the others," Judge Bolton told jurors, according to the documents.

The four jurors in their sworn affidavits characterized the new instructions as "contradictory" to prior instructions, which stated each juror had to decide the case for himself.

"When I heard the additional instruction again, I felt the court was instructing me to abandon my opinions and agree with the majority so that the case could be resolved by this jury and not have to be retried," one juror stated.