Jury fails to reach verdict in McDonald's scam

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - A jury recessed Thursday after deliberating for seven hours in the case against five men accused of trying to redeem stolen McDonald&#39;s promotional game pieces in a multimillion-dollar scam. <br> <br> The men are accused in federal court of conspiracy to commit mail fraud for recruiting winners or acting as winners in McDonald&#39;s ``Monopoly&#39;&#39; and ``Who Wants to be a Millionaire&#39;&#39; games from 1989 to 2001 using stolen game pieces. <br> <br> George Chandler, of Walhalla, South Carolina; Kevin Whitfield, of Savannah, Georgia; Jerome Pearl, of Miami; Thomas Lambert, of Bowling Green, Ohio; and John Henderson, of Las Vegas, have all been charged in the scam. If convicted, they face a maximum of five years in prison, $250,000 in fines and restitution. <br> <br> Jurors, who are scheduled to resume deliberating at 9 a.m. EDT Friday, spent the entire day behind closed doors, except for a lunch break. They asked one legal question on whether it made a difference when a person became aware he was participating in an unlawful act. <br> <br> U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Junior pointed them to a section in the jury instructions. <br> <br> Prosecutors argued that the men were involved in a conspiracy to redeem the game pieces, which were stolen by Jerome Jacobson, an employee of the marketing company, Simon Marketing, that ran the game for the hamburger chain. <br> <br> Defense attorneys argued that their clients were unaware the winning game tickets had been stolen, had been duped by Jacobson and others and should be found innocent. <br> <br> The 59-year-old Jacobson of Lawrenceville, Georgia, pleaded guilty to stealing tickets from his employer and then recruiting friends and relatives to help find people to redeem the winning tickets.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/8/201952