- Lawyers for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital have been given the greenlight to question Paul Lengyel over alleged misconduct in the Maya Kowalski case
- Lengyel has been accused of violating strict conduct rules during proceedings and of sharing details of the case with his wife
- Kowalski was awarded over $260 million in November after she won her lawsuit against the facility, with a jury finding them have imprisoned and battered her
A judge has allowed lawyers representing Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital to question a juror in the Maya Kowalski trial after they cited juror misconduct.
Judge Hunter Carroll ruled on Wednesday that lawyers representing the hospital can subpoena juror Paul Lengyel to appear in court on January 3 for a hearing.
The hospital, which was found to have falsely imprisoned and battered Kowalski, had accused Lengyel of violating strict conduct rules during proceedings.
Lengyel had served as juror No. 1 on a six-person jury that decided last month that Johns Hopkins had falsely imprisoned and battered Kowalski, 17.
Kowalski was awarded over $260 million after she won her lawsuit against the hospital in November.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, questions for Lengyel will be limited to touch on four issues that have been raised by attorneys for the hospital.
This will include whether or not Lengyel shared information about the case with his wife Yolanda who then posted it on social media.
Lawyers representing the hospital say that Yolanda, attended at least one day of the trial in Venice, meaning she could have heard attorney discussions with the judge that were made outside of the jury’s presence.
Previous court documents state that Yolanda Lengyel posted on live YouTube feeds of the trial and in a Facebook chat group largely supportive of the Kowalski family.
She is also accused of meeting with a social media influencer known as Jules, who, the motion states, is connected to the Kowalski family.
It cites as evidence a video Jules posted on her TikTok page stating that she gave Maya Kowalski her rosary beads before Maya’s live testimony on October 9.
Yolanda also allegedly discussed on social media questions her husband intended to ask of witnesses and about a juror note sent while the jury was deliberating.
A motion in the case seen by abc7 reads: ‘Much of Defendant’s initial motion focuses on the alleged actions of Juror #1′s spouse.
‘Defendant’s motion states that Juror #1′s spouse attended the trial on October 30, 2023.
‘Defendant points to screen captures from the media feed that depict a woman believed to be Juror #1′s spouse talking with another person in the gallery, whom Defendant identifies as ‘Jules,’ who apparently has her own on-line show on TikTok and who would call into other online programs on YouTube.’
Defense lawyers had previously attached a filing to their motion for a new trial with notes allegedly from Lengyel.
In it, they claimed that Lengyel compared Dr Sally Smith to a Nazi Germany organization who they claimed he had an extreme dislike of.
In the note, each time Sally Smith is mentioned the letter S at the beginning of each name is written differently than any of the other S’s on the page.
‘Juror No. 1 has printed letter ‘S’ throughout the note normally, with a curve in the spine, EXCEPT that he printed his ‘S’ with sharp angles when printing Dr. Sally Smith’s name,’ the second supplemental motion reads.
‘Both the second and third times that Juror No. 1 prints Dr. Sally Smith’s name, the letter ‘S’ is shaped in a manner identical to the symbol of the Nazi Schutzstaffel.’
In the order issued this week however, this claim made by the hospital attorneys has been dismissed.
Maya, 17, was just 10, when she was removed by the state after doctors accused her parents of faking symptoms for her rare condition – complex regional pain syndrome.
The jury found the emotional distress caused to her mother Beata Kowalski – who was forbidden from seeing her daughter for three months – led to her suicide in 2017.
The case gained national and international attention, after it was popularized in a Netflix documentary film.
At the conclusion of the trial Maya, her father Jack and brother Kyle broke down in tears as the jury’s findings were read out at the court in St. Petersburg.
Jurors found the children’s hospital liable for false imprisonment of Maya, battery of Maya, fraudulent billing of her father Jack; inflicting emotional distress on Beata; wrongful death claim for the estate of Beata; and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on Maya.
The family argued that the grief-stricken mom fell into a depression and ultimately hanged herself in the family garage, but Johns Hopkins had vehemently denied that it caused her death or abused Maya.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
