*SIGH* ANOTHER MISTRIAL FOR HAL TURNER!

The courtroom pictured here has seen a lot of drama over the past few months with the trial of Hal Turner, and with another mistrial with the majority of jurors voting for acquital, that drama is far from over. Eh, what can you do? This is the way court systems work. We won’t be waiting three months for Hal Turner’s retrial though. We start this all over again on April 12, which is two days before fellow bonehead Bill White is to be sentenced after being convicted of employing the same threatening tactics that Tuirner can’t get convicted on. Meanwhile, the lawyers that Turner had since the beginning of all of this Nishay K. Sanan of Chicago and Michael A. Orozco of Newark will not be representing him anymore. Turner is going broke with this case, and now he has been appointed a public defender, which may mean the April 12 date could be moved up. So we will be doing this again. Oh joy.

NorthJersey.com

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the retrial of ultra-right wing shock jock and former FBI informant Hal Turner after a jury deadlocked on whether Turner threatened the lives of three federal judges.

The impasse was an obvious disappointment for Turner, whose previous trial in December on the same charge also ended in a mistrial, with a 9-3 majority in favor of acquittal.

Jurors, citing an instruction from the judge, declined to comment on their deliberations and refused to disclose how they voted.

Walter set a new trial date for April 12 and appointed Peter Kirchheimer, the chief federal public defender in the district, to represent Tuner, who filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey on the eve of trial.

Asked whether the government will prosecute Turner for a third time, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan said prosecutors will review the matter, but added, “I’d say it’s highly likely.”

Turner’s lawyers — Nishay K. Sanan of Chicago and Michael A. Orozco of Newark — who represented him in both trials, said the government should be “embarrassed” because it had called the three judges to testify at the this trial and still couldn’t get a conviction.

“It’s not the victory we wanted, but it’s definitely a victory,” Orozco said.

“After two trials he’s still not convicted, so that’s a win,” Sanan said, adding that Turner went head-to-head with three of the nation’s top judges.

Turner’s mother, Kathy Diamond, 66, said his family was disappointed that Walter didn’t dismiss the charges.

“They put on their finest show, judges and all. It’s time to say ‘uncle’ and let everybody get on with their lives,” Diamond said.

Turner, 47, of North Bergen, who grew up in Ridgefield Park, built an audience of white supremacists and neo-Nazis with an Internet radio show and blog that featured racist rhetoric and frequent calls for violence against public officials with whom he disagreed.

But while he maintained a public persona as an ultra-right wing shock jock, Turner also worked as a confidential informant for the FBI’s counter-terrorism squads, gathering intelligence on the Aryan Nation, the National Alliance, skinheads and white power groups.

In June, FBI agents acting on complaint filed in Chicago arrested Turner on a charge of threatening to murder or assault three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an incendiary blog post in which he wrote they “deserved to be killed” for upholding a local gun ban.

The judges, who were not called at Turner’s first trial, testified last week that they took the threat seriously, though they didn’t request additional protection and were never harmed.

Turner testified he was merely exercising his First Amendment right to offer an opinion and that his FBI handlers had coached him on what was protected speech and what was not.

Powerful evidence of that came in the form of FBI documents which showed that after Turner opined that another Chicago judge was “worthy of being killed” in his blog and on national television in 2005, FBI lawyers concluded he was operating within their guidelines.

Turner’s lawyers acknowledged that financial reasons played a role in their parting but also said Turner wants a “new set of eyes” on the case.

The judge cautioned Turner to adhere to a gag order imposed as part of his $500,000 bail.

“You must not do anything to get the press further involved in this case,” Walter warned. “I do not want to move the case to Juneau.”