A judge has declared a mistrial against Devar Hurd, Ashanti‘s longtime stalker, who was in court on charges of stalking, criminal contempt and harassment. Hurd has already served two years in prison on a prior stalking charge for harassing Ashanti’s mother.
Hurd chose to represent himself in the trial, leading to a cross-examination of his own victim. The mistrial was declared after a key juror became too ill to come to court, according to the New York Daily News:
Devar Hurd, who unwisely represented himself in the case, will get a do-over because a female juror was too sick to come in on the second day of deliberations in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The juror was barely able to speak when Justice Daniel Conviser called her on speaker phone to ask about her condition.
“We were an hour away [from a verdict],” one juror tells the paper.
Adds another, “It’s not like he said it didn’t happen. Everything was black and white. It was all there.”
Because of the mistrial, Ashanti—who claims Hurd’s harassment of her began again immediately after he was released from prison—will once again have to face her stalker in court.
[NYDN]
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Photos via AP, Getty.