EL PASO, Texas – The eight-week jury trial of three officials of a multinational recruiting and placement agency based in Houston, Texas with headquarters in the Philippines came to an abrupt end March 19 when the judge presiding over the case declared a mistrial.

Judge Kathleen Cardone of the United States District Court of Western District of Texas declared a mistrial of the case after learning from two of the 12 jurors that they read about the case in 'El Paso Times', a daily newspaper. A juror reading about a case will be prejudging the case.

Judge Cardone re-scheduled a new trial of the case in September this year.

Christopher Antcliff, lawyer for defendant Angelica Tolentino, told this reporter that the defense team of lawyers was getting ready to present their defense when Judge Cardone made the surprise announcement. There was a break in the trial during the spring break last week when Cardone asked the jurors if anybody of them ever read the case in the newspapers. Two of them raised their hands and were dismissed for misconduct." But we have used up all the alternate jurors and the dismissal of the two left us with ten, which is two less than the required 12." Antcliff explained.