Brooks jury to deliberate with only 11

A federal judge said Tuesday that she will allow a jury of only 11 people to try to reach a verdict in the months-long fraud trial of David Brooks.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip released the 12th panelist Friday after the pregnant juror said she was having contractions and feared she might give birth prematurely.

There are three remaining alternates, but to place any of them on the panel would require the entire jury to start deliberating from scratch. It is permissible to have a jury of 11 reach a verdict in a criminal case.

But the possibility of still more jurors being replaced looms. Seybert has warned one of them, who has been frequently late, that if he does not arrive on time she will replace him.

Separately, federal Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson asked officials at the federal detention center in Brooklyn to appear in court Wednesday to explain why Brooks is being held in solitary confinement and being weaned off the tranquilizers he takes.

His attorneys had told her Brooks, ex-chief of DHB Industries of Westbury, is being treated in an "inhumane" manner.