Blogger tossed from Guldi fraud trial

The judge presiding over the second of former Suffolk Legis. George Guldi's three fraud trials had a blogger thrown out of the courtroom Wednesday when she refused to say whether she wrote a post that described potential jurors in detail.

During a pause in jury selection in the case against Guldi, who is representing himself, and co-defendant Brandon Lisi, Prosecutor Thalia Stavrides told Suffolk County Court Judge James F.X. Doyle that she was upset about blogger Terri Scofield's transcript-like post describing potential jurors. Stavrides in particular was upset that Scofield reported one person revealed for the first time she was victim of incest, "and now it's on the Internet."

In the post, Scofield didn't name the potential juror, but described her marital status, employment and other details. She also said of the juror, "It seemed to me it was a very empowering moment for her," and went on to speculate that an illness the woman described might be Lyme disease.

Doyle said he found the level of detail "very disturbing," and asked Scofield whether she was responsible for the post.

"I would prefer not to speak on the record unrepresented by counsel," Scofield replied, adding that a printout of the post was in "a different format."

"It shouldn't be hard to identify if it's yours," Doyle said, but when Scofield refused to do so he had court officers escort her from the courtroom.

"It does seem to be the type of material that would be intimidating to jurors," Doyle said after Scofield left.

Scofield hired an attorney, Arthur Graseck Jr. of Oakdale, to argue her case to Doyle Thursday. She said she was within her rights to publish details about potential jurors. "It's important for the public to see the process," she said.

Graseck said that if any jurors wanted their answers to be private, they could have said so, but otherwise anything said in open court can be reported.

Scofield, a paralegal who refused to say what town she lives in, said her interest in the case goes beyond Guldi and his co-defendants to what she called a "35-year abuse of the grand jury process" in Suffolk County.

She said she is building "a career as a gonzo journalist in the style of Hunter S. Thompson."

Thompson, the author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," flamboyantly covered politics for Rolling Stone and other magazines, often writing about his own lavish drug use. He killed himself in 2005.