Victoria Heuermann, daughter of Gilgo Beach killer Rex A. Heuermann, dismissed from serving as juror, sources say

A Nassau County judge dismissed the daughter of admitted Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann from jury duty in a child sexual abuse case last week, calling her appearance "a distraction" in the trial, her lawyer and sources close to the case said.

Victoria Heuermann, 30, of Massapequa Park, responded to the jury summons and was selected as a potential juror in a sexual molestation case.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald, the prosecutor and the defense attorney did not recognize her despite her many public appearances leading up to her father’s guilty plea and sentencing in the murders of seven women and the killing of an eighth, some of whom were killed before she was born, the sources said. Victoria Heuermann has also appeared in a documentary regarding her father’s case.

During the voir dire, the public vetting of each potential juror, Heuermann was asked if she had ever been convicted of a crime, according to her lawyer and sources who have not been named because the judge has not publicly released the transcript or ruled that it be sealed.

During the hearing, held in public under New York Judicial Law 4, Heuermann was asked whether she knew anyone convicted of a crime.

The judge, prosecutors and defense attorney reconvened in the judge’s chambers, at which point they revealed that she was the daughter of the Long Island serial killer, sources said.

She was then asked if she could remain impartial and listen to the facts.

“When it came to that one question, she asked for a sidebar. They took her into chambers and she answered it, and then they chose to discharge her,” her attorney Robert Macedonio told Newsday. “She was still willing to serve, but I guess the defense, the prosecution, and the judge — I haven’t read the transcript, I'm not sure who decided that they didn't want her there."

Macedonio said his client was nervous about going into another courtroom after her father’s trial. Macedonio said he offered to write her a letter asking the court to excuse her.

“It's not like there's any kind of overwhelming desire to serve. Nobody has an overwhelming desire to serve on jury duty,” he said. “But when they ask her the question, she answers it honestly. ‘You think you could still sit here and be fair and impartial?’ ”

Macedonio said his client should be credited for answering that question the way she did.

“She could have very easily said no, but she answered it honestly that she thought she could still be fair and impartial to the defendant's rights and the prosecution's rights, even having experienced all that. That's her own personal judgment. So I give her a lot of credit for saying that. The easier answer would have been no, and then she would have been discharged. It's harder to say yes.”

Under New York law, the entire trial, including the jury selection process, is held in open court.

“Public trust definitely comes into it,” said Ellen Brickman, a jury consultant with litigation strategy group, DOAR. She has worked on the Martha Stewart, Blake Lively and 9/11 insurance cases and other high-profile cases. “That's the whole reason behind the transparency. Do I think that public trust comes into the specific conversation in those chambers? I don't know that it would necessarily come into it in every case.”

Judges have discretion to withhold some information, but only because of specific juror privacy concerns, according to a 2004 appellate decision regarding the Martha Stewart criminal case.

Brickman said it is not unusual for a judge to call a potential juror to a sidebar conference or go to his chambers to ask questions about their fitness to sit for a trial.

“There are several reasons for it. One is that we want jurors to be as honest as they can possibly be, particularly on high-profile or sensitive cases,” she said. “Another is that people are more likely to be honest in chambers than they will be in open court. And the third and very important one is that if you're asking questions that may get strong responses, strong and potentially inflammatory responses, you don't want people tainting the jury pool.”

Hofstra Law School professor and former Nassau County prosecutor Fred Klein agreed that there are reasons for questions to be asked behind closed doors.

“It’s unusual for the judge on his own to disqualify a juror that's otherwise qualified by law,” Klein said. “She's not related to the parties in the case. She's, I assume, the appropriate age. She's a Nassau County resident, and she hasn't indicated a bias.”

Macedonio said his client is regularly dogged by attention and exclusion from normal life because of her father’s crimes.

“She is going to suffer the repercussions of this for the rest of her life,” he said. “And this is just an example of what happens, you know, when they're put into public, when they go for job interviews, when any time something comes up with the name and people want to do any little background check, it's going to pop up for the rest of her life. So this, when I said early on that Asa [Rex Heuermann’s wife] and Victoria and Chris [Asa’s son] were victims, this is what I meant. These are innocent victims of his actions.”