Moments before federal prosecutors were due to begin their final summations to the jury in the Bridgegate trial, court was adjourned for the day Thursday. The judge only said "a legal issue" had come up, rescheduling the proceedings for Friday.
NEWARK--Closings in the Bridgegate trial were inexplicably cancelled Thursday morning after a long closed-door meeting between the judge and the attorneys in the case.
"We have a legal issue to resolve," was all U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton told the jury, after a nearly one-hour delay. "Things have come up."
She said "providing we resolve the issue today, we're going to resume tomorrow."
The jury was told to return Friday morning.
The judge said nothing more before adjourning and neither the federal prosecutors nor defense attorneys would comment as they left the courtroom.
In a closed door hearing on Tuesday, the defense had objected to the judge's final instructions to the jury in which she said the prosecutors only had to convince the jury that there was a misuse of Port Authority resources.
Wigenton ruled that prosecutors did not have to prove that Kelly and Baroni intended to punish Sokolich as part of the conspiracy charge.
Rather, the judge said the government must only prove that the two intentionally conspired to misuse the agency's resources.
And there is always the possibility at any trial of a defendant entering a last-minute plea deal.
Charged in the case are Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, and Bill Baroni, the one-time deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
They are accused of helping orchestrate a four-day shutdown of local toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 as part of a scheme to create huge traffic jams in Fort Lee intended to send Mayor Mark Sokolich a message for his refusal to endorse the governor for re-election.
The defense rested its case on Wednesday.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter.