The defense for a former House staffer is considering a request for mistrial in Tennessee’s political corruption trial.
U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson sent the jury home Tuesday before it could be seated when defense attorney Cynthia Sherwood, who is representing a former aide Cade Cothren, notified the court she might seek a mistrial because of audio played Monday that was supposed to be redacted.
In the audio, former House Speaker Glen Casada told FBI agents who raided his Franklin home in January 2021 that Speaker Cameron Sexton didn’t like Cothren and wouldn’t have approved him as a constituent mail vendor if he knew Cothren was running Phoenix Solutions.
The court was supposed to spend the rest of Tuesday allowing Sherwood to spend time talking to Cothren about the possibility of seeking a mistrial and then returning to court to talk about a potential “remedy” to the mistake.