A 12-person jury with four alternates has been set after two days in the trial of Glen Casada and Cade Cothren, the former Tennessee House Speaker and his one-time chief of staff. Opening remarks will take place on Thursday morning.
The first panel of potential jurors consisted of 40 people, but after challenges from each side, the number was reduced to 22 by the end of Tuesday. On Wednesday, each side had the chance to strike 10 more people. The government struck only one, while the defense struck nine, leaving exactly 12 people to fill 12 jury seats.
That still left four alternate seats unfilled, which meant Day Two ended up being a long one, largely reminiscent of Day One. Twenty-four more potential jurors were brought in, and, as the defense discovered, one of the potential jurors was already exhausted.
“I wish it would hurry up and start, I’m ready to go home,” attorney Cynthia Sherwood read from one potential juror’s post on X (formerly Twitter).
Glen Casada with his attorney Ed Yarbrough. Credit: Paul Collins / Special to the Banner
Councils approach the bench. Credit: Paul Collins / Special to the Banner
Cade Cothren with his attorney, Cynthia Sherwood. Credit: Paul Collins / Special to the Banner
Judge Eli Richardson. Credit: Paul Collins / Special to the Banner
The honesty continued throughout the day. While most of the pool was OK with the idea of avoiding any information outside of the courtroom about the case, one potential juror knew himself all too well.
“Yeah, to be 100 percent honest, I know for a fact I’m gonna go home and look it up,” said the potential juror.
That juror was unanimously dismissed. But the defense didn’t get their way on all of their requested dismissals.
“I think that anybody who has consumed media at this point should be stricken,” Sherwood said, arguing that she has not seen any media that is “positive” toward her client, Cothren.
But Judge Eli Richardson, who made clear on Tuesday that minimal knowledge of the case was not grounds for dismissal of a potential juror, was unconvinced.
The only other notable moment from Wednesday occurred early in the day, when Richardson ruled that Cothren’s outgoing bank transactions were not relevant to the case and should be redacted from the government’s filing of his bank records. Richardson found that the central question of the case is whether the manner in which Cothren obtained the money was criminal, and how he spent it was not relevant.
Casada and Cothren face 20 counts of money laundering, bribery, wire fraud, and theft related to the operations of a mailer company, Phoenix Solutions. The company was allegedly established after Cothren’s departure from his role on the Speaker’s staff as a way to continue paying him.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday. Jury instructions will be first, followed by opening remarks.
