Alternate juror says she was worried ‘about people coming to my house’

Several legal experts have raised concerns about Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill’s failure to sequester the jury up until deliberations began. 

Lisa Christensen, an alternate juror in the Derek Chauvin trial, speaks with 'CBS This Morning' on Thursday. (CBS/YouTube)

A woman who served as an alternate juror in ex-cop Derek Chauvin’s murder trial recently admitted to feeling “concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict.”

Lisa Christensen has been featured in several local and national stories in the days since the trial concluded with Chauvin’s conviction. She was one of two jurors who sat through the duration of the trial without knowing of their status as alternates.

She told KARE 11 that she had “mixed feelings” about serving as a juror in the high-profile case.

“There was a question on the questionnaire about it and I put I did not know. The reason, at that time, was I did not know what the outcome was going to be, so I felt like either way you are going to disappoint one group or the other. I did not want to go through rioting and destruction again and I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict,” she said.

A resident of Brooklyn Center, Christensen lives just six blocks from the local police department, the site of unruly protests and riots last week following the death of Daunte Wright. She said she “could hear everything.”

“When I came home, I could hear the helicopters flying over my house … I could hear the flash bangs going off. If I stepped outside, I could see the smoke from the grenades. One day, the trial ran a little late, and I had trouble getting to my house, because the protesters were blocking the interstate, so I had to go way around. I was aware, but it did not affect me at all,” she told KARE 11.

Christensen said she agrees with the verdict, which deemed Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

“I would have voted guilty. However, at the end the judge did read us the rules for deliberation, but it was quick, and I could not absorb it,” she said. “After I was excused, I did not look at the jury instructions any longer. I do not know how hard that process was, but I feel like Chauvin is responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death.”

Several legal experts have raised concerns about Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill’s failure to sequester the jury prior to deliberations.

“What was done to George Floyd by officer Chauvin was inexcusable morally, but the verdict was very questionable because of the outside influences of people like Al Sharpton and people like Maxine Waters,” argued famed attorney Alan Dershowitz, who said the judge “made a terrible mistake by not sequestering the jury.”

 

Anthony Gockowski

Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.